Looking through the Mirror
by Ghost Courier
Summary: I've been many things in my life. Explorer, Warrior, Healer, Diplomat, Commander, Businessman; But above all of that I was a Courier, I brought messages to people. I was born in a different universe, This is my story within this universe.
1. In a Different Saddle

_The Fallout universe doesn't belong to me, and I have drawn inspiration from New California Dreaming, by Hotpoint, as you will see in later chapters. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the basically non-__existent__ wages of a student._

_This is not strictly a crossover, although it could be argued that the games Fallout 2 and Fallout 03/NV are so different, with the former being much more rife with moral ambiguity and being outright darker and more adult in tone, that it sort of is despite the fact they take place in the same universe merely being set on different sides of the country a few decades apart._

_The Fallout games are set in a post-apocalyptic United States years after the Third World War wiped out most of the population of the planet (most of those that did survive had been inside gigantic Nuclear Bunkers called Vaults) and left most of the country a blasted, radioactive wasteland. However this is not our future, the Great War of 2077 happened in a parallel Earth which diverged from ours after World War II and the pre-war culture and society was different enough to ours to make it an almost 1950's version of the future... with nuclear bombs dropped on it. This story takes place in the Mojave wasteland, and later the ruins of Washington DC and the surrounding region (known as the Capital Wasteland) the setting for Fallout 3 (set in 2277) however it starts four years later than the game does and features original main characters, one of whom is from the West Coast where Fallout 1 (set in 2161) and Fallout 2 (set in 2241) took place._

_Let me know how I'm doing as the story progresses, I don't have a lot of story writing experience._

* * *

><p>I've been many things in my life. Explorer, Warrior, Healer, Diplomat, Commander, Businessman; But above all of that I was a Courier, I brought messages to people. I was born in a different universe, onewhere the NCR was a republic, Legion, Caesar's legion existed and where it was under the control of an absolute despot. This is the story of my adventures in this universe:<p>

I woke up in a strange room, with an intense pain in my head. I opened my eyes to a spinning world, but that was probably just from the pain of being shot in the head.  
>A mechanical voice then said "Welcome back to the world of the living, Partner! Your possessions are being held with the nurse. Please, allow her to fill in your medical history, as the CCMD is currently offline. Have a good day, Partner!"<p>

As the panel in front of me popped out and slid to the right, I was greeted by a brown haired, Leather Armor clad, athletic built woman in her mid twenties, and a dog.  
>The dog growled menacingly at me, but then the woman said "Shh. Cheyenne, Down! Don't worry; she won't bite unless I tell her to."<p>

To which I replied "Thanks, but who are you and where am I?"

"I'm Sunny Smiles, and you're in Goodsprings."

"How did I get here?"

"Our Sheriff, Victor, Brought you in here. Look, before you ask any more questions, I've got to do a Medical History on you, or the Auto-Doc won't treat anyone else." "O...K..., that's an odd directive for an Auto-Doc, they're supposed to treat everyone. What's first?"

"First is going to be your Name."

"I'm called Caine"

"OK, Caine, Next is gonna be Treatment Efficiency... Your alive, so speed gets a 5; here, tell me how close it got to what you look like."

"My face is perfect, even the scar will be hard to notice, but it cut my hair & changed its colour, can you fix that?"

"Yeah, I have some Perma-Dye; we should be able to get close. I'm guessing you give it about a 4?"

"That sounds about right, what's next?" "Next is a Psychological Test,... Come in to the Living Room."

"Sit down on the Couch, and then I'm going to say a word. I want you to say the first thing that comes to mind."

"Alright, go ahead"

"Dog", "Train."

"House", "Renovate."

"Night", "Campfire."

"Bandit", "Swiss Cheese."

"Light", "Torch."

"Mother", "Caretaker."

"Okay. Now I've got a few statements. I want you to tell me how much they sound like something you'd say."

"First one, conflict just ain't in my nature.", "Disagree"

"I ain't given to relying on others for support.", "Disagree"

"I'm always fixing to be the center of attention.", "Agree"

"I'm slow to embrace new ideas.", "Strongly Disagree" "I charge in to deal with my problems head-on.", "Disagree"

"Almost done here. What do you say you have a look at this? Tell me what you see." "A Broken Chain"

"And this one, what do you see?" "I'm too embarrassed to say what it looks like"

"Last one." "A light in the darkness."

"Well, that's it, just let my plug this into the Doc, so it doesn't get difficult with us."

"So, why did they have you baby-sitting the Auto-Doc, while I was in there?"

"It wanted a Nurse for when your surgery was finished. It could tell men from women, and I know the most about medicine... so one thing led to another. Not to mention, Vic doesn't usually dig up dead bodies, so that piqued my interest."

"Well, thanks for your help! Uhh, the Auto-Doc said something about you having my gear?"

"Oh! I almost forgot. All the stuff you were brought in with is in the footlocker by the door and there's a Vault Suit, since your clothes were covered in blood, are on top of that. I'll fit the Pip-Boy to you once you've got all your clothes and gear back on."

"Pip-Boy? I didn't have one, not that I don't want it though."

"Yeah, it seems like you could use it, though. It's a little old, but no one else wants to use it. So it's yours if you want it!"

The footlocker contained a laser pistol, a combat knife, a leather suit from Vault 21, 5 stimpaks, my NCR Ranger's badge, a Sheriff's hat without the pin, the disassembled pieces of my old combat armour in a backpack, a note that described my orders, and on top of everything was a Pip-Boy 3000.

Like Sunny said, she helped fit the Pip-Boy to me, then told me "Hey, go see Trudy over at the Prospector, she's kinda the town mom, and she'd be mighty cross with me if I didn't tell you to go and have a visit."

I nodded, grabbed the hat off of the hat rack, and stepped over to the door. I put on the hat, and then opened the door to a blinding, searing white light. I then stepped outside. It took me a few seconds to acclimate to the difference in light, but I still kept walking down the hill that the clinic sat upon, towards the Prospector Saloon. An old man was sitting in a chair near the door, but he didn't say anything as I walked past. I opened the door and heard shouting over by the far side of the bar. I then pulled out my laser pistol and knife and readied myself for a fight. But when I came around the bar, no one was fighting, only yelling, so I put my weapons away, but kept my hands ready. The man that was yelling was wearing an NCRCF guards uniform, except that it's shirt was red and it said CLCF on the back.

Since everyone was looking to the woman behind the bar, I guessed that she was first thing I asked her, stupidly, was "CLCF, I thought the legion didn't take prisoners... Shouldn't that be NCRCF?"

To which she responded with "That bullet must have done more damage than the Doc thought! Regency ain't ever been the takin' prisoners type. Just kill em and stuff their mouths with sand."

"Regency? How is the Republic fighting this 'Regency' and Caesar's Legion?"

"Don't know what you're talking about, friend. There's only ever been the New California Regency and Consul's Legion. I ain't ever heard of this republic or 'Kaisar'..."

"But... Never mind, just pour me your strongest whiskey."

* A few drinks later *

"So I heard your argument, what was that about?" I asked. "About a week ago, this trader, Ringo, Comes into town. Survivor of an attack, he says. Bad men after him, needs a place to hide. We figured he was just in shock, so we gave him a place to lie low. We didn't actually expect anyone to come after him."

"So, where's Ringo now?"

"He's holed up at the abandoned gas station up the hill."

"So, who was that guy?"

"Joe Cobb, one of the so called "Powder Gangers", just chain gangs without chains, really." "Why don't you just kill Cobb and be done with it?"

"What, you mean murder him? That's not our way, even if Cobb is scum. He can bluster and threaten all he wants."

"Ok, but why not fight back?"

" Because there isn't a reason to. The scum ain't hurt any of us yet, just hollered at us. Some of us feel like you do, like Sunny'd probably jump up and help Ringo if he asked."

"Alright, where were the guys that shot me headed, if you know?"

"They were headed back towards New Vegas, by taking the I-15 South, I assume."

"Why's that?"

" Well, the northern stretch is covered in beasts that just get mad when you shoot 'em. If you're looking to chase after them, I'd go south, through Primm, then walk east through Nipton and then Novac"

"Well, thanks. Is there somewhere I can catch a bit of shuteye?"

"Yeah, I got a room in the back you can stay in for the night. I'll let you stay for free tonight, seein' as you just woke up from an awful surgery. Normally it'd cost you 20 caps a night."

"Thanks!"

After hearing all of that, and sleeping off the whiskey, I decided to help Goodsprings fight against the "Powder Gangers", so I went to the gas station that Trudy had said that the Crimson Caravaneer, Ringo, was hiding in, to see if I could get him to help. He wasn't much help in terms of supplies, but he told me to go talk to Sunny again, to see if she would be able to help. So I did; I went back to the clinic not even 24 hours after I had woken up.

Sunny exclaimed "I had hoped you wouldn't need to come in here again so soon!",

To which I responded " I don't need any medical assistance, at least not yet. I plan to fight the Powder Gangers so they stop threatening the entire town."

"Ok, I'll help, I can give medical assistance during the fight, or I can fight and have you help me later."

"We're gonna need every gun we can get, so I'll do what I can to help you after the battle. Who else could we get to help? We need boots on the ground, and that means weapons, armor, and people."

"Well, If I were you, I'd talk to Chet, Trudy, and Easy Pete."

" Who are Easy Pete and Chet?"

"Well, Easy Pete is, or at least was, a miner at some point, because he has a large stash of dynamite. He's the old guy sitting outside of the Prospector most days. Chet runs the town's general store, and I seem to remember him getting a shipment of Leather Armor in last week, that he could let us borrow. But he's a cold hearted scoundrel who'd sell his own mother if it made him good money. You're gonna have to make it worth his while to give it to us."

"Alright, I'll go see Easy Pete first, then."

After that, I left the clinic and went over to the Prospector again. I stepped over to the old man in the chair, and asked "Are you Easy Pete?" To which he replied with, "Yes I am, Son. Whaddaya need?"

"I'm trying to prepare the town to fight off the Powder Gangers."

"You want to fight them Powder Gangsters, you say? You're looking for my dynamite, then. I ain't gonna give it to you if you don't know what you're doing."

"Well, I don't really, but you could teach me, right? It'd mean fewer deaths for the citizens."

"Well, alright, but don't you go and use this against good people." He then showed me how to use the dynamite, how long I should wait to throw, and how much damage it can do if misused. "Well, thanks for the help. I trust you'll have the rest of your stash ready soon?"

"Faster than you can say brahmin, son."

After I convinced Pete to give us his dynamite, I went into the Prospector again. I asked Trudy if she would support our little militia, and she told me she would if I could get Easy Pete AND Chet to support me. So, my next step was to go talk to Chet. I asked him if he would let us borrow the armor, and, in an arguable fail in judgment, I told him my plan to fight the Gangers.

He asked me "How do I know that my Armor won't get destroyed? That's a big investment for little gain."

But I retorted "But it is for your own job security. If you don't give us the armor, and we all get killed out there, they'll loot and destroy your shop. Either give us the armor and run a calculated risk, or definitely take a huge fall."

"Fine, I'll lend your militia the armor, but if I can't make it look like new again, YOU are paying for it."

"Fine by me, just make sure everyone gets a set."

After that, I went back to tell Trudy the good news, and she reluctantly agreed to tell everyone. After talking to Trudy, I went to tell Ringo the good news. He was ecstatic about that, and said that he was ready whenever I was. I had heard a report of geckos near the town's water tanks, and felt that it would be a good opportunity to watch the prison as well. I went to get Sunny, so we could go and clear the tanks, and spy on the Powder Gangers. We went up, cleared all three of the tanks of geckos with no problems, we went to check on the gangers. I looked through a pair of Binoculars that i had bought from Chet, and saw gangers start moving towards the Long 15, towards Goodsprings.

All I said to Sunny was "Run, get ready!" before I bolted back towards the town. When I got back into town, I yelled "Ready the Militia" as loud as I could, and people came out of various buildings, carrying whatever rifles, pistols, and melee weapons that they could get their hands on, and all clad in Leather Armor, courtesy of Chet.

The battle itself was long and difficult. During the battle, I ran out of ammo for my pistol, so I grabbed a 9mm Pistol off of one of the dead gangers. Even with that pistol, I began to run out of ammo. One of the gangers pulled out an SMG and sprayed us with bullets. The man next to me took the brunt of the blast, killing him instantly. One of those bullets sunk into my right shoulder, blood came splattering back out of the new hole, a spreading stain on the jumpsuit accompanied with a blinding, and searing pain and limpness in my shooting arm described in gruesome detail the extent of the injury. I pulled a stimpak from my belt, stabbed it into my shoulder, and sweet, sweet relief flooded my veins. But, the bullet was still there, so I couldn't move my arm without risking more damage. I grabbed the pistol out of my right hand, and began shooting at the gangers with my left. Alas, my left arm was to shaky from the shock of injury, and being my off hand, to hit anything decently. I fell back behind the rest of the militia, taking cover behind the Mojave Express drop box in front of the general store, and used it to rest my left arm on, to steady my shooting. We eventually killed all of them, but not without losses of our own. By the time the smoke cleared, 4 of the militia laid dead, and as many as 15, myself included, were injured. But 35 or 40 of the gangers were killed by us.

After checking the dead, Sunny ran over to me and said "Caine! Let's get you to the Auto-Doc, I need another skilled medic, and that's you; but not in this state! Don't worry, I can keep the injured alive, but I won't be able to make any progress in healing them until your back."

"I'd better hurry then, yeah?"

After saying that, she started yelling to people to help her bring the injured into the saloon.

As she said that, she called to me "When you're done getting fixed, bring all the med supplies to the Prospector!" After that, I stuffed my "new" pistol into my belt, stumbled up to the clinic, laid into the door and spun the handle, and almost tumbled into the Doc. It had a touch screen interface, so I tried to hit the buttons, but I was in shock from the injury, even though I had stopped the bleeding. Luckily, my random tapping made it realize that it was a medical emergency. It said "Voice Command mode enabled, what is the nature of the medical emergency?"

"Gunshot wound, shock, possible nerve damage. Activate Combat Redeployment mode."

After saying that, it changed from its normal cowboy-esque voice to that of a drill sergeant, "Affirmative, Combat Redeployment mode active, step inside, Soldier." With that command, I stepped into the Doc, It grabbed me by the waist, injected a sedative, and started to work as the world faded.

Less than an hour later, I woke up to that familiar metal panel, and the Drill Sergeant telling me the time and date (with the surgery having only taken 35 minutes) , and to return to duty. I hit the button to return to standard mode, grabbed all the meds and doctor's bags I could, stuffed them into a Duffel Bag, and went over to the Prospector. I ran over, and when I opened the door, all I could hear was laboured, pained groaning coming from the tables, presumably the injured.

Sunny called "Good, you're done! Come help me treat the wounded!" She grabbed a Bag out from the duffel, pulled a roll of gauze, and started wrapping a guy who had cuts from what I was guessing were grenades.

I asked "You did pull the shrapnel, right?"

"Yeah, what am I, dumb?"

"No Ma'am, I'll go work with the patients now."

I went over to a table with a man on it who had taken a bullet to the side. He was wrapped; with the Stimpak still suck in his side. I pulled out the 'pak, and called over a group of patrons turned orderlies to help me carry him to the Doc. Luckily, Trudy had put cloth on all of the tables, making it easier to carry the patient. We got him over there, unwrapped the bandages, put him in the Doc, and set it to work. I left one of the orderlies there to help him when he got out. I spent the rest of the day helping the injured and checking the powder gangers for anything useful. The next morning, I noticed what looked like an old Chrysylus, from before the war. I asked Trudy if it ran, and she told me that no one had tried. She said if I could get it running, I could take it and the pull-carts. I thought I could get the engine running, but the thing definitely needed some work anyway. I made a note of it, hoping to go back soon.

After checking on the patients, and asking what Ringo would do, to which he responded "I'll stay here a few days, then head back to the Crimson Caravan."

I then began walking towards Primm.

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><p><strong><em>Note from the Author:<em>**

_First of all, if this sounds familiar, it's because this note is adapted from Hotpoint's New California Dreaming_

_You don't have to have played the Fallout games to enjoy this story I hope but greater familiarity with the universe will help you appreciate it far more. There will probably be quite a few in-jokes and references that only fans of the Fallout games would likely get but I've tried to make the characters interesting and entertaining enough in themselves._

_If you're not a Fallout aficionado, or even if you are and you just lack my ability to remember obscure facts about fictional universes, I heartily endorse the Fallout Wiki for all your Fallout Universe information needs._

_I'm going by the fallout timeline including the unreleased game Van Buren (what was originally to be Fallout 3) which has the Brotherhood of Steel going to war with the New California Republic some time after the events of Fallout 2. The BoS had better weaponry but the sheer size of the NCR population (700,000 citizens, a vast number for the era) means that its military made up for in quantity what it lacked in quality and the war stretched on for years._

_Our original character, Richard Aradesh Caine is a veteran of the war who transferred from the NCR Regular Army to the elite New California Rangers (paramilitary police who roam the wastes wiping out raiders and slavers and looking out for enemies of the Republic). His mother was one of the Vault 13 survivors and his father a tribal from the original Arroyo, both rescued from the Enclave by the Chosen One in 2242 (thirty-five years before Fallout 3, he's in his early thirties by this point)._

_The NCR, in the Prime Reality, knew that the BoS had sent people to the East and they wanted to know what they're doing, suspecting the Brotherhood was looking for advanced weapons to obtain some new advantage. As far as Caine is concerned, even though the Brotherhood attacked his country, he felt that they could have had the right idea, if only they had helped people instead of hoarding._

_The currency in Fallout 1 (set in 2161) consisted of bottle caps taken from Nuka Cola bottles. As __civilisation__ re-established itself on the West Coast however real coins made of gold and silver replaced them (the gold being mined from Redding) and by Fallout 2 (set in 2241) caps were no longer used as money there. However the East Coast is not remotely as well recovered from the war in terms of re-opening mines and factories so caps are still used as money in the Capital Wasteland as of 2277._

_The 10mm Heckler and Koch MP9 sub machinegun is a constant fixture of the Fallout games. The 7.62x51 NATO FN-FAL however only features in Fallout 2 where it is noted to be back in production in NCR service. In Fallout 3 the standard US assault rifle is the R91 firing the considerably less powerful 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge._

_There is a ludicrous quantity of whiskey bottles to be found around the Mojave Wasteland, it was that that made me think of Caine driving a car running on the stuff. Bio-Diesel is basically super-whiskey, and although most vehicles don't run on fossil fuels, they could, with a little bit of ingenuity._


	2. Learn Fast

_Before I start, I changed up the point of view, just to make it a little bit easier to write. I will eventually fix the first chapter, but I want to get these on here first._

_Let me know if you guys like this way or the other way better, I am doing a little experimentation with this._

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><p>Primm, with it's Roller Coaster, seemed like a pre-war amusement park, at least when compared to the rest of the Mojave.<p>

As Richard walked closer to Primm, an NCR trooper ran over to him, and said, "Where do you think you're going, you Waste of Skin?"

The former ranger replied "Who the hell are you, calling me a waste of skin, soldier? I'm a damn Ranger! If you really need to know, I'm going to the town over there, Primm."

The trooper then said "Do you not know your place, Ranger? The Regent has called for the Enlightenment of this town, you will leave or die."

"You'll let me pass, or I will kill you. You should know what the Rangers can do." Caine deadpanned.

He swung his HK MP9, which he had picked up off of the gangers; around on the rope sling he had made the night earlier.

The trooper pulled out and leveled an FN FAL. Being rather annoyed, he said "I will say again, Leave or the Regent demands your -".

As he was saying that, Caine heard a crack, followed by the schlink of a mid-calibre bullet passing by his ear and sinking into the soldier's brain case. His eyes went wide, then Caine heard the report from a Sniper Rifle.

He spun, let go of his MP9, knelt and pulled out his 5.56 mm Varmint Rifle, all in one smooth action. Thinking 'Damn! I should have gotten that scope!', he leveled the rifle on the position he thought the shooter was and squeezed the trigger. The bullet, spinning through the air, went out and impacted with the ground about 5 feet from the rifle.

The sniper rolled away from the position, leaving the rifle sitting on a bi pod, and put their hands up while leaning on their elbows. Sunny called "Hey! Watch where you're shooting Caine!" Hearing her, he picked up the FAL and stuck the varmint rifle back on the side of his pack.

Sunny stood up, then called out sardonically "You must really love getting into the habit of getting saved by this town, eh?"

Caine retorted "Hey, waking up to you isn't a bad deal. I could get used to it!"

Sunny said "Not for me. I wouldn't get any sleep!"

"Oh, I wasn't planning on getting any sleep." Caine said, playfully

Realizing the direction the conversation had just turned, Sunny said "I meant that I wouldn't get any sleep because you snore like a _chainsaw_. Hey, at least I got to you before that NCR prick killed you."

"Believe it or not, I'm an NCR Ranger... Just not this NCR."

"What? What do you mean by that?" asked Sunny.

"I'm a New California Republic Ranger. Only problem is that the Republic doesn't exist in this universe. Replaced by the Regency." I conceited.

Sunny offered "Well, what about the Legion? They must have something similar."

"I've been called a profligate and attacked by the Bull enough to be wary of anything Roman." Richard said with disdain.

"So, what are you going to do?" She inquired

"If I go east, past the Bull, I should be able to get to the old Capital, there were members of the Steel Plague that went that way. Not my first choice, but I have faith that people can change. Maybe they aren't such assholes anymore. Or maybe this legion really is different than mine."

"Well, Ranger or not, they won't care. I know it might be difficult, shooting your own people, but you've got to shoot first and ask questions later." said Sunny, seemingly filled with regret

Caine, disgustedly and slightly disappointed, said, "These bastards _are not_ from the NCR, at least in my mind, so I couldn't give a shit. I just hope that the Legion is different from the one I know, for the Mojave's sake."

"Well, good luck. I'm going to head back to town." She said as she picked up her rifle and walked back over to the outskirts of Goodsprings.

Caine, inspecting his new acquisition, found it's fire selector and set it to Auto. Going back over to the body, he checked the dead man for anything useful. On him was a Stimpak, a magazine bandoleer and 5 magazines for the FAL, giving a grand total of 180 7.62 x 51 mm cartridges, with 30 in the rifle at that moment. Putting his backpack on the ground, Caine pulled the armour plating that should have been on his set of Elite Combat gear, and donned the cuirass, greaves, and boot plates, strapping them over the vault-tec issued leather suit, achieving a rather odd look. He didn't have an overcoat, so the pauldrons and bracers that usually accompanied the armor didn't fit, so he returned those to his pack, along with the Stimpak, and then slipped on the bandoleer taken from the trooper.

Finding nothing else of use on the body, he picked up a rock and angrily scoured the backwards NCR flag off of the trooper's breastplate, feeling it almost a blasphemy. He then pulled up his FAL, and moved into the encampment they had set up. Facing towards the town of Primm was a soldier who had apparently not noticed the earlier shot. He was staring off into space, making him a perfect target for a certain someone to open his throat. Doing that, Caine holstered the FAL in his other rifle holster and drawing his combat knife, he grabbed the unlucky man and ran the blade around the base of his throat. That caused the trooper to let out a stifled, wet, gurgling attempt at a scream, causing aerated bubbles of blood to flood from the pulsing wound. The man then dropped to the ground, a large sanguine pool forming around his still hot corpse, flowing into the cracks of the road, like little rivers moving away from a lake. Caine grabbed the FAL and unloaded into the two tents, worried they had heard the scream. Sure enough, people had been standing in the tents, probably worried about their comrade. Caine heard one flop over onto something with squeaky springs, he guessed an old bed, and another made a groaning yell, which was followed by a thump. Caine, now expecting the tents to be empty, went into the closest one first. This tent was a storage area, with racks of communications equipment being illuminated by a lantern. From the door, now behind him, came the words "Hey, Asshole!"

Spinning, Caine met with a leather wrapped fist, this punch knocking him to the ground and causing his FAL to fly, clanking across the hard pavement 5 or 6 feet away. The assailant awkwardly pulled Caine's MP9 from it's holster, and aimed it at his face. Caine knocked the sub machine gun away, and jumped up, throwing a punch of his own, but before he could react, the opponent dropped the MP9, causing it to skitter in the same direction as the FAL, and shot his left hand out, squeezing it around his throat. The enemy then picked him up off of his feet, causing his airway to close even more. His vision starting to blur and darken, he grabbed for something, anything he could get his hands on. Luckily, he felt a brick of metal on the back of his belt, which he pulled off and smashed it into his attacker's face with every ounce of strength he had. Now stunned and disoriented, the assailant dropped him and stumbled, giving Caine a chance to pounce. Jumping at him, he bowled the huge man over and, with a bestial roar, he smashed the metal brick into the man's head until he heard a sickeningly satisfying crunch from the entirety of his enemy's face. Only after doing this did he realise that he had destroyed his laser pistol in the process, for that brick had been his laser pistol.

Rolling back onto his knees and dropping the now useless brick, he wiped the blood, sweat and grey matter from his face with both hands. He dejectedly thought 'If it keeps on like this, I can't stay. There's no way I'll survive in between the NCR and the Legion.'

Only after calming down did he realise that this man was wearing NCR Ranger Combat armour, which meant, at least in his universe, which he deemed the 'Prime universe', that the man was a veteran ranger. He thought 'Good, at least I've gotten rid of someone who knows what he's doing. Still sucks, but at least it's one less experienced terrorist' ,cringing at what he had just thought of the rangers here. Beginning to pull the leather coat off of the 'Ranger', Caine realised that it might instead be a good idea to clear the other tent first. He grabbed his FAL, holstered his MP9, and began to clear the second tent. Inside the second tent, Caine found an enabled Protectron. The robot gave it's standard warning, and he, slightly startled by it, raised the FAL. The robot, noticing this, turned it's globe red and said "Halt! Relinquish your weapon, or deadly force will be applied." Unwilling to comply, Caine fired a three round burst into it's plastic 'face', causing an electrical bolt to discharge from the shattered remnants, and impact a metal crate. With this, it screeched "Error! Error!", dropped to it's knees, then fell forward with a thud.

The body of one of the Regency soldiers was flopped over a bed, with a Ranger Combat Helmet on another. The trooper had a hole between his eyes, a lucky shot, since he was wearing his armor, with a face wrap and a helmet, not to mention being shot through the tent.

Upon closer inspection of the Combat Helmet, caine realised that it was the helmet from Elite Combat armour, which was, in his universe, reserved for the best of the best among the rangers. He was one of those few, although he didn't have the armor because of his mission, but he did make sure that he had all of the armoured pieces, so he could at least put something together if the need arose. Thinking about the other 'ranger', he realised that the other one had only standard issue ranger combat gear, meaning that he took this from someone else, or that he was just stupid.

Caine grabbed the helmet, took the long coat from the other ranger, and assembled what resembled the armor that he should have had.

Putting on the helmet, he noticed a significant difference between the prime version and this. This helmet included a heads up display, which had a clock, temperature reading, viewfinder, compass, battery metre , an up to date mini-map, and something he could only guess was an ammo counter, and a prompt asking if he would like to enable voice control. All the different modules loaded up as he put the helmet on, each showing a loading message, then sliding to its assigned corner of the visor. Caine mumbled, "How would I turn it on without Manual controls?"

A masculine voice then said, "currently, the only acceptable commands are 'affirmative' or 'negative', I apologize for the inconvenience."

Caine dumbfounded asked "Who are you? Show yourself!"

Again, the voice spoke, "I am Voice Interface Controller, English, version 1.2138B. Vice for short."

Caine said, "Alright 'VICE', enable voice commands."

Vice responded, "Voice commands engaged, officer. It's odd; I can't find your genetic profile in The LVPD database. Should I expand the search to include all police departments?"

Caine replied "no, you won't find it. Add me to your database."

VICE then said, "Affirmative, state name, serial number, and current department or division."

Caine responded, " Sergeant Richard Aradesh Caine, serial number A13526RE, New California Republic Army Rangers; formerly NCR Army 13th Arroyo volunteers, Company E, 2nd squad."

VICE responded "Confirmed, Sergeant Caine. Welcome back. Recent history and modified genetic profile appended to record. Last Log-in 204 years, 30 days previous from current date."

Caine, confused, asked, "What? Welcome back? I asked you to add me as a new user."

Vice, "Accounting for some genetic modification, you have a 96% match to Captain Richard Aradesh Caine, LV PD SWAT. Graduated from NY PD academy January 24, 2063. Listed rank of officer in NY PD records. Awarded purple heart on 2 occasions; citation for valorous action or meritorious service, 6 occasions; Promoted to rank of inspector. Transferred to San Francisco Police Department May 12, 2070, no reason cited. Promoted to rank of Sergeant June 22, 2072.

Awarded purple heart once, citation for valorous service or meritorious actions in the line of duty on 3 occasions. Transferred to LA PD March 12, 2075. Promoted to rank of Lieutenant August 31, 2075. Promoted to Captain August 1, 2077. Put on Administrative leave August 28, 2077, Reason cited as 'Emotional Distress, sent to Maui for R&R'. I have no record of what transpired to cause your demotion, speak to HR about an updated personnel jacket."

The supposed owner of the helmet said, "I never went to Maui. I am not that Richard Caine, related, perhaps, to him, but not him. I was born in 2255, in a suburb of New Arroyo. I joined the Army of the NCR when I was 16."

VICE responded, "My records show that you are Richard Aradesh Caine. Your genetic markers have a 96% match, as I said before. _If _you are a different Richard Caine, then you are, at the very least, related to him by no more than 4 generations. Would you like me to create you a new Personnel jacket, using the previously appended information, until I receive a more complete version from Human Resources?"

Caine, now profoundly annoyed, said "_YES, _do that, then tell me what my applicable commands are with the current circumstances."

Vice, unconcerned with his annoyance, spoke, "Commands would currently only have effects on the Heads-up, the Communications system, and other helmet devices, such as the internal and external lighting, NV capabilities, etc. To connect to armour systems, please use the cable in the right pod to connect to applicable armour and/or garments. For weapons and weapons systems, please connect the VIWeC module to firearms, and let me know about others. For vehicular statistics/control, connect the VIVEC module. I can provide instructions for the modules, if you require them, Sergeant ."

Intrigued, Caine asked " How would I connect the V. I. We. C. module to an FN FAL without electronics?"

Vice responded with an explanation of how to disassemble the VIWeC module into its component parts and install each in the firearm, which Caine followed to the letter. In his HUD, the ammo counter slid to the centre, show a translucent loading screen, and then slid back to it's old position, showing 3/30, 78%, Auto, Ready, and None as parameters.

Caine then asked "What if I have more than one firearm?"

VICE replied "The weapons management system can support up to eight weapons modules at one time, with automatic switching if palm pads are connected."

"Alright then, let's go to Nipton. Oh, and mark any Automotive shops and salvageable vehicles on the mini-map, if you can do that, of course."

Vice then responded "Affirmative, overlaying Las Vegas business map. Processing… Processing. There are three automotive shops or rest stations between current location and Nipton, Nevada. Geomapper module engaged. No fusion signatures detected. Scanning… 497 possibly working vehicles found. Note: scanner maximum range 2 miles."

" Add a marker inside town of good springs, Nevada; near the Prospector saloon. Can the outside world hear this, or do you have, like, a sound dampening system?" Caine asked, worried about sending schizophrenic.

" No, you must turn on the external speakers. There are two modes, one in which they can hear myself as well, or one in which they can only see you. What would you prefer?" Replied Vice.

" Filter yourself out for now, I'll let you know when the others should hear you. At this point you're a tactical advantage, I'd rather not give up the element of surprise just yet." Caine said thoughtfully, wondering if vice was an AI.

"Very good, sir. Shall we get going?" Vice asked.

" Yep, off to Nipton." Caine said, smirking.

* * *

><p><em>Primm, the first town you go to in the game, set up my perceptions of the other factions in the New Vegas area. In a normal game, you can either attack the NCR troops and leave the settlers to die, Attack the gangers and save the settlers, or do nothing. Before you do anything though, you always have to speak to the first NCR trooper. I chose instead to have the NCR already kill the gangers, removing that moral issue. The Ranger in the camp was purely of my own design, as they don't normally appear that early, nor do they carry semi sentient helmets with them. The helmet is based off of armor found in both Fallout 3 as well as in downloadable content for Fallout: New Vegas.<em>

___The flag of the NCR is a mutated two-headed bear and is of course based off the real life California flag. The Only difference, as I've already said, is that it's backwards compared to the normal flag for the state of California, or the NCR for that matter.___

_ Perhaps I splurged a bit on VICE, but I think it'll be worth it in the end. Expect chapter three by the end of next week, maybe sooner. _


	3. or Fall Hard

Smoke, Caine saw only smoke, and heard only the cracks and pops of smouldering ruins coming from Nipton. He knew what that usually meant, but he didn't want to believe it, he didn't want to believe that the legion could not be mirrored, but that the NCR could be evil. He saw the bodies on the crucifixes, he saw the bastards in Roman Armour, and his instincts just took over.

Five legionnaires, three dogs, and one Frumentarius, 11 of the 7.62x51 MM rounds sunk into its target, spinning, expanding, tearing through its target, each connecting with scream or yell, three sunk into the face and body of the frumentarius, eliciting a gurgling, and yet still blood curdling scream from him. Each of the legionnaires, as well as the dogs, fell in step, the next one beginning to fall as the earlier dropped to his knees; a perfectly choreographed slaughter; a grim allusion to the brutal utilitarian upbringing that they had all endured, the military training and conditioning they had all suffered through. The only one out of step was the frumentarius, falling backwards instead, smashing into the stairs behind him, landing with a sickening crack.

The blood that flowed from their heads, going into the cracks in the intersection, spun and twirled together like rivers feeding into an ocean. Following this, cutting the victims down, closing the eyes of those who died, giving the still living water to drink, food to eat period He took the weapons off of the legionnaires, given those to the strongest and he took anything else for himself. There, in that ruin, he came to save five people. Two of them were gangers, the other three settlers. He brought them back from the brink of death, and then led them back to the town of goodsprings, making the gangers swear to be useful to the town.

Militiamen came out ready, feeling something was amiss. Hearing the commotion Trudy came out of the Prospector, asking "What's going on here? And who the hell are they?"

Caine responded "Refugees from the good town of Nipton. The gangers have agreed to be probationary citizens, until you deem otherwise."

Trudy, incredulously replied "what do you mean, refugees? I spoke to people familiar with the area only four days ago."

Deadpan, Caine said "Attacked. By legion, found these people on the crucifixes. I've promised them asylum here, if they're useful."

Sunny interjected "Fine, I'll have my men watch them. We have a couple of houses with open land; will put the three in one, in the gangers in there. Expect to be working by tomorrow, I'll let you know what to do."

Trudy said "It's decided, then. The settlers will go to the farmhouse; the gangers will go to the one nearest to the barracks. We'll try to make them feel at home, Caine."

Caine then said "I'd like to rebuild the Chryslus, can you give me a couple mechanics, or at least a mechanically oriented person and a strong one?"

Sunny returned with "Yeah, I'll give you Jim and Nick. You get some rest; I'll have a few people push it up to the gas station."

Caine thanked her, then started to walk to the Prospector. Truly called to him, "Here, have the key to the back room, it's all yours!" She then to underhand tossed the key to him and went to help the new arrivals settle in.

The next morning, Trudy treated Caine to a delicacy, her home fried Deathclaw egg. The egg itself was huge, a bit larger than ostrich egg, if the book Caine had read contained correct proportions. He had only had mantis eggs before, which are a bit smaller than a large chicken's egg, so this seemed immense. It was actually almost the size of his helmet, just a few millimetres smaller.

He actually ate the whole thing, but it took him an extravagantly long time, because of its size and how good it tasted, almost 3 hours to eat with the whole thing and a Brahmin steak. He thought they must have gained at least five pounds from that meal but he felt it was worth the effort of losing the weight, for something that good.

By the time he finished, it was almost 10.00 AM, so he decided to get to work on the vehicle. The engine itself was in good condition and, luckily, it was an internal combustion engine. That hopefully meant that it could run on whisky, If he could find some gas to mix it with. First he wanted to make sure it ran, so he broke up the VIVeC and installed its component parts so that the helmet could tune the engine perfectly, instead of wasting days and a large amount of whisky doing that. He connected a fission battery to the engine and sparked the starter. With a powerful, tremendous roar the vehicle came to life, but not wanting to waste any more of the whisky, he turned off the engine.

Now knowing it worked Caine, along with the help of Jim and Nick, began the body work. Again leaving goodsprings, the three of them took the Brahmin carts and piled them high with the Chryslus parts, collecting enough to hopefully rebuild it from the highway near the Mojave outpost. When they returned and counted the pieces, they found they had enough to rebuild the Chryslus and still have enough parts for another half of one. Also, they found a plough and the mount for a trailer hitch.

They pulled off the old body, piece by piece, making sure to organize them into groupings so they would be sure where all the new parts should go. After stripping the vehicle down to its chassis, they mounted the hitching assembly, and spent the rest of the day carefully rebuilding the Chryslus and attaching the plough to the car's grille.

They finally finished as the light began to fade, and the way the light hit it, it seemed to be waiting to stretch its legs, wanting to go somewhere, anywhere. It was almost pleading just to leave, to get on to the open road, to see the sky, to feel the wind. That night, Caine drew up plans for the modifications that he wanted to make, mapped out his journey to the capital, had one last drink in goodsprings, and then went to bed.

* * *

><p><em>This'll be my last chapter in the mojave, we'll be going to the location for fallout 3 from here on out. The chapter came out a little short, but I think it came out brilliantly. I had a stroke of creativity, and I am hoping you will like it. As always, tell me what you think about the story. Things should only get better from here, but that would be easier with feedback. <em>

_Deathclaws are a large, agile and strong species of mutant chameleons, specifically Jackson's Chameleon created through genetic engineering, with the addition of DNA of various other species. However, due to mutation, they have lost their color-changing ability._

_ The _Chryslus _that Caine keeps talking about is the Chryslus motors Highwayman, something that anyone who played Fallout 2 should be familiar with. In that game, it was missing its fuel cell controller, which used micro fusion cells (MFCs), or small energy cells (SECs), to provide power for the engine. One of the new inventions that came out after the game were biofuels, like E-85. I thought, why not run a vehicle on alcohol instead of the hard to come by SECs or MFCs, using those like the car batteries we have today. _The company that made it is, or rather was, the_ fallout universe's the version of Chrysler Group, LLC. The vehicle itself, the Highwayman, is possibly a__ reference to the 1957, 1958 or '59 Plymouth Belvedere, or possibly the Fury Coupe (a Chrysler product), as it bears an uncanny resemblance._

_In Fallout: New Vegas, you enter a town called Nipton, where you find some legion soldiers waiting near the city hall, after crucifying the residents and some powder gangers. In the game, you can't take people down for it would kill them. I thought that if you could get to them early enough, you should be able to save them._

_A fission battery is a miscellaneous item that can be found in both games, with seemingly no uses. I assumed that they were to provide power from fission, like chemical batteries we have today(AA, AAA, C-,D-cell, 9V, etc.), and that they should be able to work similarly to a car battery._


	4. Local Guidance

* A few months Later *

Riding in the Highwayman, listening to music, going , as the old song goes, under spacious skies,through amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain. Caine could feel the soul of America, how it was doing, through the music. Blues in Louisiana, Rock in Florida, and Enclave radio, and some little stations, in Virginia. Louisiana had it's spirit, Florida was fighting to survive; Virginia didn't care, It had been taken over by psychopaths, but it kept that fighting spirit that helped the US win the revolution over 500 years earlier. Richard had decided to take the I-15 South, back through Mojave Outpost, then linking with the I 40, turning south at Flagstaff, on to I 25, then hugging the coast west on the I- 10 , and finally heading north along the I-95, to the nation's old capital. That path, although longer than others he could have taken, turned out to be beneficial. Many small communities had popped up along the 10, so he could always refuel, and 95 was almost untouched into Virginia, despite it's being the main artery for the eastern seaboard. Within Virginia, there were a few rough patches, which the trailer highly disdained.

Running a little low on fuel and noticing a relatively intact building with a fire inside, Caine stopped the car and parked with a group of others, about 300 metres away from the building. Grabbing his modified FAL, Caine went over to the door of the building. Out of the door came flying a 1 metre, metal tipped spear, spinning through the air, and eventually flipping and hitting the ground.

The spear missed him by over a metre; and seeing this, he called out "Hey, I don't want any trouble,just looking for whiskey. You got any?"

Inside, a woman opened a butterfly knife with both her hands, and holding it incorrectly, threatened Caine, yelling "Get away! This is my stuff! If you get any closer I'll cut you!"

Caine, realizing her relative inexperience with the knife, said in a tone that he reserved for children, unruly junior officers, and the mentally unstable, "OK, let's think about this, you have a 2 or 3 inch blade, I have a GUN. Who do we think is gonna win? How 'bout we put the knife down, before someone has to get shot."

Offended, the raider said " Don't talk to me like I'm some dumb kid, my Pa always said I was very intelligent. Speaking of, they'll be back soon, and they don't much like strangers." The raider's accent, although thick sounding to Caine, would sound normal to anyone from around DC.

"Look, all I want is some whiskey, no food, no water, no ammo, unless, of course, you can spare some." Caine said slowly."You talk funny" the girl observed.

"To me, you're the one who talks peculiarly." Caine replied flatly, "and that word means..."

"I know _plenty_ of words including that one" the girl responded, clearly aggrieved by his implicit accusation she was some dumb tribal or something. "You know I meant your accent" she said indignantly.

"I'm from out west" Caine explained.

The girl looked doubtful. "You mean West Virginia?" she asked. "I've known plenty of traders that came from there and they didn't sound like you" she stated.

"Further West than that" Caine replied patiently.

"Indiana?" the girl queried.

Caine groaned. "I'll save you the next half-dozen or so states. Skip to the one at the end" he said.

The girl raised her eyebrows, she had seen a map of the old United States and knew where that was. "So you're from California?"

"Oh, it seems that you actually know your states, _interesting_" Caine replied, half amazed and half sardonically.

"Are you with the Brotherhood of Steel?" she asked. "I heard tell from some folks they hail from way out that far."

"No, I'm not from the Brotherhood of Steel. Why?" Caine responded coolly before his expression shifted to a look of intrigue. "Are there any of them around here then?" he asked, looking very interested all of a sudden.

"Why do you want to know?" the girl queried. "And is that knowledge worth anything to you?" she asked.

"How much for the information? _Without_ me having to answer the first question." Caine replied.

"Fifty" the girl told him.

"You're kidding" Caine responded, "For that, it'd more worth it to beat it out of you, just to save that much money."

The girl looked alarmed. "My Pa and brothers..."

"Yeah, yeah" Caine interrupted her dismissively. "Twenty-five" he counter-offered.

"Forty" the girl replied. "And I'll let you have three bottles of whiskey for fifteen caps each" she continued. "It's the good stuff, goes down smooth" she promised.

Caine saw at least six full bottles lying around, and he knew that if she wanted to sell him only 3, for forty five caps, no less, then she didn't know the value of the stuff. Everywhere else he had been, 3 bottles were 30 caps at full price.

"Even though I could easily handle it, I'm not going to drink it" Caine responded flatly. "Thirty-five for the information and another fifty-five for _all_of the bottles of whiskey, that's ninety-five caps all together" he said.

"That's a _hundred_," the girl responded angrily, but a little amazed that she was complaining, with how many caps she was making anyway, "you trying to cheat me?" she asked.

"You're just lucky I'm feeling generous today. I could just kill you and take _everything. _"Caine replied with a shrug. "Okay, a hundred, and put that damn toothpick away. If anyone saw me handing you a load of caps while you're pointing it at me they'd think I was letting you mug me, and I just can't allow my reputation to restart that way."

The raider looked around the deserted structure and wasteland beyond. "Who the hell is going to see you out here?" she asked reasonably, putting the switchblade away.

"Well. you're out here. Who knows who else is. Believe it or not, a lot of cazadores would rather sting themselves than take me on" Caine deadpanned.

The girl looked Caine up and down. "Yeah, right" she said eventually, clearly unconvinced by the veracity of his admittedly unlikely claim.

"Would you believe that I once killed a Deathclaw with a survival knife, alone?" Caine asked with a grin, _he_ thought he was funny at least. "So where's the whiskey and where did you see the Brotherhood?" he asked.

"No, now show me the caps" the girl insisted.

Caine nodded back the way he had come walking into town earlier. "Back there with my car and the rest of my stuff" he said.

"Your _what_?" the girl asked in surprise.

"My car" Caine repeated himself, "my automobile, I call her Serenity." he said. "You didn't think I _walked_ three thousand miles to get here did you?" he asked rhetorically. "That's why I need the whiskey" he explained, "I'm nearly out of fuel and I didn't want to have to put the good scotch in the tank."

"You've got a _working_ automobile?" the girl queried in obvious amazement at such a notion.

Caine laughed, it never ceased to amuse him how backwards things really were once you left the borders of the NCR far behind. Whilst it was true that most of the travelling was done by steam-train back home, with still only a few old fusion-powered cars and trucks on the road, ethanol burning internal combustion engines weren't even all that rare these days.

"Believe it or not, I actually built it myself. It _has_ taken a battering getting here, but it still works" he confirmed.

15 minutes later, he counted out the caps from the bag locked in the footlocker that substituted for half of his back seat and after handing them over had received the whiskey which he was now pouring into the fuel tank. He had tested a mouthful, saying this was only to verify what proof it was. Even though he hoped it wouldn't eat through the bottom of the tank, he had to agree it was better quality than the stuff he had been running it on back in civilisation, some redneck in these parts must have a hell of a still he decided.

"Okay so where's the Brotherhood?" he asked, putting on the Combat-Armor helmet which had been resting in the passenger seat. He had already put on his backpack which had been resting on the seat.

"Sixty miles North, you'll find them in the Capital Wasteland" the girl said.

"Alright, I better get going." Caine said, before shutting the door and going around to the driver's side.

The girl fidgeted, then guiltily said, "Wait. I haven't been quite honest with you. My Pa and Brother died a few years back. Please, take me with you. If I can get to Canterbury Commons, in the Capital Wasteland" she explained, "my Pa knew a man there who worked with some traders, I might be able to get a job" the girl said. "I'd never get that far on my own, I've got my little brother's old rifle but it's busted so bad it's not even worth carrying because anyone looking at it would know it was broken" she continued, "and I've only got a few bullets for it left anyhow because I sold the rest" she told Caine. "I worked at a bar next town over till last week but I wouldn't go with the customers so the boss threw me out."

"Everyone's got a damn sob-story" Caine complained, "okay, if you promise to stop telling me yours I'll take you along, _but_ if you get us lost I'll sell you to a slaver or maybe some cannibals" he vowed.

"No you wouldn't" the girl replied confidently, and then frowned "I won't sleep with you" she told him seriously.

"You smell worse than I do and I got laid a couple of days back anyway so I'm still choosy" Caine retorted. "Now don't go thinking you get to take a load of crap along, my suspension won't like carrying two of us anyway" he told her.

"I've just got a small bag back there where we met" the girl told him. "And I need to collect my spear too" she added. "I got a mole-rat yesterday, there's still some left if you want to eat" she offered.

"I've seen you throw that spear, did it die of old age?" Caine asked sarcastically. "Shit, I'll push the damn car down there, save some gas" he said, getting out, putting it in neutral, and starting to push the car back to where they had come from.

"What does that number painted on the back of your helmet mean?" the girl asked him, following on.

"It's how many deathclaws I've killed in hand-to-hand combat" Caine replied wryly.

"I don't believe you've killed thirteen deathclaws with your bare hands" the girl responded.

"My opinion of your intelligence is going up" Caine told her, 'pretty soon I'll think your IQ is that high."

Not knowing what an IQ was the girl ignored him. "So what _does_ thirteen mean?" she asked.

Caine sighed. "Thirteenth Infantry Battalion, Army of the New California Republic" he told her. "Arroyo Volunteers."

"Who's Arroyo and what did he volunteer for?" the girl wanted to know.

Caine stopped pushing the car, and stared blankly into space before shaking his head sadly. "They called us the "Arroyo Volunteers" because almost everyone in the Regiment was from the town of New Arroyo" he said. "The number meant a lot to us so we all signed up for that unit when they asked for recruits to fight in the war" he told her.

The girl looked at him intrigued. "What war?"

"You ask a lot of questions" Caine complained, starting to push the car again.

"What war?" the girl persisted.

"The war between the New California Republic and the Brotherhood of Steel" Caine replied, deciding he could either answer, be badgered about it or shoot her and while the latter option has its positive side he really _could_ use a local guide.

"So you used to be a soldier and you're from a town in California called New Arroyo" the girl said. "Well at least you're not a dumb tribal" she said.

"My _father_ was a tribal" Caine responded, turning to glare at her. "_I_ get to call tribals dumb if I want, _you_ don't" he told her sternly. "And I don't actually come from New Arroyo, I just joined the unit. Always brought me good luck, so I kept it with me."

The girl broke eye contact. "So do you have any tattoos then?" she asked, lots of the primitives did "was your Ma a tribal too?"

"I've got a couple of unit tattoos on my right arm" Caine answered, "the NCR bear, 'cept with a bull's as one of its heads, on my chest, my mother was from a vault and you don't get to ask any more damn questions for the next two hours" he declared.

The girl pouted. "You haven't even asked my name" she moaned.

"It would make it harder to beat you to death if I knew it" Caine muttered.

"It's Madison" the girl told him quickly. "Madison Tanner."

Caine thought about that for a while then eventually smiled. "On second thought, it _wouldn't_ be any harder to beat you to death now that I know it" he decided happily. "You'll have to wear my backpack if you're going to sit in the back of the car" he told her.

"Why would I want to sit in the back? The front seat is open." Tanner said, realistically

An hour later Tanner still couldn't ask any questions but as they rode down a relatively intact stretch of Route 66 and she gradually got used to the idea of travelling this way she did learn one more thing about him, that although he liked to sing, he didn't have a great voice. But, seeing how he just saved her, she wouldn't speak up just yet. Caine was singing a song that Tanner thought he imagined, but was actually from before the Great War.

_Take my love,_

_Take my land,_

_Take me where I cannot stand._

_I don't care,_

_I'm still free,_

_You can't take the road from me._

_Take me out,_

_To the black,_

_Tell 'em I ain't coming back._

_Burn the land,_

_and Boil the sea,_

_you can't take the sky from me._

_Have no place,_

_I can be,_

_since I found Serenity,_

_But you can't take the road from me._

He was about to start singing another song, California Girls when they ran into a gang of Raiders and Sergeant Richard A Caine, Formerly of the New California Rangers, got to demonstrate why the Republic had chosen him over all the other volunteers to find out what the hell the Vegas overlord, Mr. House, was up to, and why he came out all this way knowing he could set up a good life for himself, at the very least.


	5. A Bump in the Road

Caine slammed down on the breaks and spun the wheel to the left, causing the vehicle to lose traction, flip, and skid for 2 metres along the ground, finally stopping 30 centimeters from the jersey barriers. Luckily, being this close blocked the raiders' fields of view but gave the much more experienced ranger a huge opening.

He pulled his FAL from the back of the passenger seat, undid his seat belt, and dropped onto the vehicle's roof. The raiders started to circle around the car like confused vultures, not sure what to make of the previous 10 seconds of events. Caine took aim, somewhat awkwardly, on the knees of a larger raider, since he couldn't aim any higher because of the door. The FAL, being chambered for 7.62 * 51, does a lot of damage to it's target.

The unlucky raider was no different, the bullets hitting him in the knee caps and tumbling, turning them into bloody, pasty clouds. The loss of his knees caused him to fall to the ground, inadvertently putting his head perfectly inside Caine's sight picture. Caine fired a third round, which impacted with the enemy's face, right between his eyes. A 7.62 mm hole appeared in the front of his skull, and an 8mm hole appeared in the back of his head, carrying brain matter and blood with it.

'One down, two to go.' Thought Caine, hearing two other sets of footfalls.

As they rounded the other side of the car, Caine told Tanner "Go, Get out from your side, before they realise their friend is dead."

"How do I open this thing?" She asked, worriedly.

Caine groaned "There's a handle, pull it out, then use your arm to push the door out."

After a few failed attempts, she got the hang of it and clambered out. Caine quickly followed her out, rolling out of the door. Leaning around the corner of the car, he readied his FAL and took aim on the second raider. He squeezed the trigger, and with a crack and a wet thump the raider hit the ground.

Immediately after that, Tanner yelled "Caine, get down!" and pulled him onto his side.

He was about to yell at her when he heard the tell-tale _p-ting!_ of a bullet ricocheting off of the armor plating he had added to Serenity back in Flagstaff. He hoped and prayed that the _only _thing the round hit was the plating, and nothing else important. He crawled back through the car's windows, hoping the raider wasn't smart enough to expect his movement.

He switched the FAL to his left side, and swung around into position on the left side of the jersey barrier. The raider was as stupid as he had hoped, keeping her eyes, and more importantly her gun, trained on his old position. This gave him the perfect shot, not on her, but on her weapon. He squeezed the trigger, sending a round hurtling into, and shattering, her pistol's action. He then rolled around the barrier, jumped to his feet, and charged at the final raider. He kicked away the now useless pistol and shoved the 533 mm steel barrel into her face.

"You caused my car to flip; you're helping to remedy that. If you don't give me any issues, you might just survive this ordeal." Caine said authoritatively

"Fuck you! I'm not doing that! I can't flip a fucking car over, it's crazy heavy." She screeched

"As I said not two seconds ago, if you _don't _give me an issue, you _might_ just live. Not to mention I'll be helping, and so will she," he said pointing back at his guide. Then he tied her hands in front of her, and went back to the car. "Also, I have rope, so we won't have to do this by hand." He said.

Holding the lid of the trunk up with one hand, Caine began rummaging through the over turned contents, looking for rope, a long piece of cloth, and tools. He quickly found those items, removed both mirrors, then detached the trailer and flipped it, rolling it back to the edge of the road and chocking the wheels. Then he went back over to the car, tied the rope to a metal loop installed on the floor inside the vehicle for occasions like this. He then threw the rope over the top of the car, almost hitting the prisoner with it. The Ranger then told the prisoner to pull on the rope, and he began to rock the car, causing the roof to creak. Quickly, Tanner ran over to assist him with the rocking, and with a painful screech the car rolled back onto its wheels. As soon as that happened, Caine pulled out his M&A 9mm and strode over to the prisoner.

He put the gun to her head and said, "On your knees, now."

Her eyes went wide, and she said "No, I'm not doing _that_. You wanted me to flip your car, and I did. Let me go!"

Caine responded by pressing the gun into her temple and said, "On. Your. Knees. NOW!"

Worried for her life, she complied, kneeling and reaching for him. He kept the gun sighted on her head and smacked her hands away from him with his left. Realising he wasn't looking for that, she pleaded "Come on, you said you wanted me to flip your car, and I did! You said I would live if I did that, so let me go! Please, I don't want to die!" and, starting to sob, cried "I'm sorry, I'll stop doing this. I was forced into this, addicted to drugs! I didn't want to do any of this, and you said you'd let me go, I just want to live!"

Caine, now sufficiently annoyed by the sniveling raider, said flatly, "I lied." and squeezed the trigger. The 9mm thundered, red cloud sprayed from the back of her head, and she flopped over into a pool of her own blood. "And I said you _might _live, not you _would. _Rest in peace, tortured soul."

"What the fuck was that for? She wasn't dangerous!" Tanner called angrily, letting go of the crate she had been dragging away from the edge of the road.

"She had been brought into a world of hate, drugs, whoring and death. She had accepted that as her fate, she wouldn't have changed. All she understood was fear, pain and death, and had no support to get out of that life. Its better she went this way then by gang rape by another group, or slowly from rad poisoning, or slowly _and_ painfully by rad scorpion venom, I think you'll agree." Caine said, diplomatically.

"Well, yeah, I guess. It ... it just doesn't seem right to play god like that." Tanner said sadly, beginning to drag the crate away again.

"I wouldn't have needed to do that if they hadn't set up the roadblock, hadn't made the car flip." Caine said, disappointed

"No, you didn't have to kill her. But there wouldn't have even been a chance of it if you hadn't crashed the damn car!" Tanner said, agitated by Caine's assumption. "Let's pick up their gear, make their deaths not be in total vain. Make us some money as well"

"What do you mean 'us'? It's my bullets that were used, my caps that have been wasted, _my_ car that's been damaged. I'll recoup my losses, and then you might get something." Caine said, slightly put off by her assumption.

"We're partners; the spoils should be shared equally." Tanner said, diplomatically.

"No, we aren't partners. I'm your employer, you're my employee. I'm driving you around, using up extra fuel, and I killed all of these raiders." Caine said strongly

"Look, like it or not, I saved your ass, big Mr. Ranger. Say what you want, but I deserve some of the money. If you had just gotten killed, your gear would sell for quite a bit, and I could have easily taken them with your rifle." Tanner said, angrily.

"Fine, you can take the hunting rifle and all the ammo, IF you can shoot." Caine said as he began to take the armor off of the raider he had just executed.

"Thanks _boss_. But, are we going to leave them like this, sprawled out in their own blood?" Tanner asked, worriedly.

"No, we can lay them out right, on the side of the road. Not great, but better than they would have done for us." Caine replied.

They moved the bodies and parts, laid them all on the edge of the road, reattached the trailer, and then moved the crates out of the car's path.

"Ok, we - uh, you - should be able to get a few hundred caps for this stuff in Roanoke." Tanner informed him.

"I'd rather not swim the armour over to sell it, unless you have a better idea." Caine responded, snidely.

"Huh? Why would we need to swim anywhere? It's on land." Tanner asked, bewildered.

"Roanoke was a British colony in the 1600's, and it was set on an island." Caine replied, knowingly.

"Oh, I understand now. How is it that you know so much stuff about the history of the Old World?" Tanner inquired.

" I went to school in the New California Republic, I got schooling there. Lets get this stuff into the trailer." Caine said, picking up a pile of armour and guns.

* * *

><p><em><em>The wasteland is a very violent place, Raiders are extremely common and like to hit Trade Caravans and unwary travelers. The most commonly seen rifle in the Capital Wasteland is a .32 Calibre Hunting Rifle. Two centuries after the fall of civilisation they are not typically in good repair but they're still considerably more powerful and accurate than the likes of the war-surplus Chinese Pistol or the 10mm N99 Automatic.<em>_

__You'll be finding out more of the backstory of both the main characters as the Fic progresses, including the story of Caine's journey across the country and his (mis)adventures in the South and Southwest.__

__I'll be diverging more from New California Dreaming within the next couple of chapters, but the overall feel will probably stay similar. Go read his (Hotpoint's) story, the one this is based on, at:__

__.net/s/5074902/1/New_California_Dreaming  
><em>_


	6. Entering the Capital Wastes

Having crashed into one, and getting stopped by another three blockades, also taking into account that Roanoke was a bit out of the way compared to the capital, Caine had instead chosen to go directly to the capital. The land itself was dull and dreary, all filled with grey, but the sky, the sky was clear and bright blue, almost emanating a feeling of hope in the future, in the second chance that Caine didn't yet know it had been given.

Tanner said "The Capital feels a lot better now, even though its only been a few years, don't you think?"

"To be honest, no. I don't have a point of reference. It looks like any other post-war shit hole to me." Caine said, even though he did get the feeling of hope.

Tanner slightly snidely said "Oh, I forgot you don't know our local history. Project Purity has been running for a good four years now."

"What's Project Purity?" Caine inquired.

" A giant water purifier. Some guy came out of 101 looking for his pa. He found him, and with his and the brotherhood's help, got it working. Then the enclave came and took it over, and killed his pa, Three-Dog gave his name as James, in the process of trying to get it to work. So the Lone Wander, as Three-Dog called him, fights the enclave and destroys their base at Raven Rock, then garners the support of the brotherhood again and takes it back, then got it working. After that, they went and destroyed the enclave base at Adams AFB and launched a missile at the pentagon, which I guess were the main bases for both groups, since most of them disappeared after that. You still see a few of them, but most of 'em have gone underground, it seems. After that, the Wander disappeared; no one wants to know what happened to him." Tanner replied.

"Wait, you said the _Enclave _was here, too? How did anybody do anything, nevermind build a water purifier, with the steel plague and the damn enclave?" Caine asked, amazed.

"Yeah, they were. As I_ just_ said, the Wanderer killed the hierarchy of both groups. A shame, the Brotherhood did a lot of good for the wasteland. and to answer your other question, I don't know how they built it, just that they built it. I do know that they had been working on it for years before the enclave came back into the picture, though." Tanner said, picking up on the fact that Caine knew what they were, and that they had been around long before the purification efforts had began.

"But how did so much survive, and Purity get built, between the plague and the enclave?" Caine asked, more than slightly amazed at the area's supposed tenacity.

"The brotherhood protected Project Purity, and they fought the enclave out of it and destroyed them. The brotherhood were helping us, and then the wanderer destroyed them. Luckily, Rivet City took over the purifier and gave the brothers there asylum." Tanner said.

" This Wanderer had the right idea. Never trust one of those bastards from the plague, they almost always have an ulterior motive. Wish I still had my Gauss rifle, in case we run into one of them." Caine said with disdain.

"What says they had ulterior motive? What if they were actually trying to help the wasteland? The West, this NCR, amount to a whole different world compared to the east, to DC." Tanner said angrily.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it, sister." Caine responded coyly.

"Whatever. So, why do you call the car Serenity? I've been wondering since I first signed on with you." Tanner asked, feigning genuine interest.

Caine, even though he did pick up on the false interest, responded reluctantly, "A few things happened, and home just isn't, and can't be, home anymore. The song I was singing inspired the name."

Tanner, now genuinely intrigued by his reluctance to answer, queried "What happened? How could you do something to make your home no longer your home?" Slightly worried, she added, "Did you ... did you nuke your home?"

Angrily, Caine responded, " No, I didn't nuke my homeland! I didn't do anything, things... things just changed, OK? I don't want to get into it."

Trying to change the subject, and hopefully thin the tension, Tanner said "Hey, Tenpenny is coming up over here; let's stop in. Maybe they'll buy the armour and weapons. Its bigger than I imagined when pa described it."

To Caine, the town that had sprung up around the tower looked almost like Helios 1, except instead of the solar panels reflecting light on the tower, It was homes and businesses reflecting commerce and civilisation.

On the outskirts of this outpost, a sign stood and read 'Welcome to The Statesman Hotel Tenpenny Outpost.' The billbooard had street signs that had been repainted to point towards the various districts of the town put above it, each pointing in a slightly different direction. Caine parked the car on the side of the makeshift road once he got to what looked like the centre of that area of town. He opened his door, which was slightly creaky because of the recent damage, then he opened the hood and pulled the spark plugs out of the engine, putting them in a pouch on his belt.

While checking his fluid levels, a voice came from behind him, "Hello, and Welcome to Tenpenny, my good man. Our own Anthony Ling has an outlet right across the road, we have armour and weapons shops on the right side, if you require them, followed by workshops and middle class apartments. I can provide you with the necessary forms, should you require them. On the left, and behind Mr. Ling's boutique, we have restaurants and shops of miscellany. Our Gift Shop is found inside the hotel, along with the best of our shops and our various franchises' headquarters." He said this politely, but emphasized the part about the clothing outlet.

Closing the hood, Caine spun and spoke to him. "Thank you for the information. Can I rent a room, or is the 'hotel' title just a misnomer?"

"The rooms inside the hotel are for rent, and if I do say so myself, are much more comfortable than the apartments. Not to mention the hotel rooms get the hot water first. They are well worth the price, in my opinion. Just talk to the receptionist once you enter the hotel, she'll take care of the rest. But, she's supposed to only let in those of the higher classes. You may have a large amount of caps, but it won't matter to her if you don't look the part as well. Mr. Ling just got in a new shipment of exquisite suits and dresses, I'd go speak to him." said the greeter.

Tanner chimed in, "I've heard the people inside Tenpenny are pretty snooty." Quickly adding "No offense."

"None taken, Miss. I don't come from the tower proper, I am a resident of the town." Replied the greeter.

Caine said,"Again, thank you for all the information. I'll go sell my goods, then speak to . Help me get the gear out of the trailer Tanner."

Tanner remarked, "Don't call me Tanner, _Richard_." as she pulled the raiders' armours out of the cart, noting that each was made from pieces of leather armour and scrap metal, which made them seem worthless to her. The weapons, on the other hand, might be worth something since the Chinese assault rifles were very easy to repair.

"Alright _Madison_. I don't expect the armour to be worth crap, but the Type 93s could be broken into spare parts, sold that way." Caine said, unknowingly agreeing with Tanner . "Also, I'm I the only one who got a really weird vibe from that guy, like he was hiding something?"

"He probably just didn't like my comment, don't worry about it .So, how much of this am I going to get, Caine?" She queried him.

"Whoever said you were getting any of it? You're costing me fuel, and you haven't done much guiding yet," Caine said condescendingly "Also, I'm not cagey. Circumspect is a much more appropriate description of me."

"Hey, most of the suburbs are pretty self explanatory until you get closer to DC, and I did save your ass back at the first roadblock. Not to mention if you have a suit and I have these raggedy old things, they'll think I'm your slave. As far as I've heard, they don't accept slavers in Tenpenny." Tanner said reasonably

Caine relented, tossing her a bag of 100 caps off of his belt before going to his car to get another. "You're lucky I have an aversion to slavery. There's a hundred caps in there, I recommend getting _one_ dress and spending the rest on armour and other gear, like a gun cleaning kit. I suspect the raiders didn't find the time to keep up with it."

"Thanks, _Boss_. Once we sell the armour and guns, lets go see this 'boutique' the greeter was talking about." Tanner said, slightly amazed about getting another 100 caps out of Caine

They went to a shop off of the right side of the main road, who gladly took the eight assault rifles and the 5 pairs of raider armour, which were in awful condition, for a 'measly' 1500 caps.

After unloading those, they both headed over to Ling's boutique. The first thing Caine saw was a handsome 4 piece suit; Black shirt and blue tie, dark grey vest with Fleur-de-lis patterning, with the pants, blazer, overcoat, fedora, & shoes in a deep, almost black, purple. A sign sitting on the pedestal below it said 'Variety of cuff-links and tacks available, can be fitted to the customer for only a little bit more. Inquire inside for pricing'. Tanner, at the same time, saw a beautiful aubergine dress, with red frills and a red rose, and had a sign on the pedestal below it which read 'Matching Shoes, variety of colors available, sizing for a meager fee. Inquire inside.'

They both hurried, almost in unison, toward the counter and spoke to the attendant in unison. Caine allowed Tanner to ask about her dress first, realising it the gentlemanly thing to do. The woman behind the counter answered her question, then called through the door behind her for another attendant, who swiftly came to help Caine with his suit.

The two of them chatted a little bit while Tanner was whisked into the back room by the woman at the counter, and then the attendant started to tailor the suit to Caine, even finding a pair of cuff-links and a tie tack with the number 13. All in all, it took 3 hours for Caine to get himself fitted and have the suit tailored to be comfortable, but it was well worth the 185 caps he had to spend on it. He thought that he would be done after Tanner but, lo and behold, she wasn't.

He paid for his suit, then asked the attendant, "Is there a way that you can put her dress on the bill for the room if it's more than, say, 100 caps?"

The attendant responded, "Absolutely, but it will cost a little bit extra. I assure you no more than ten per cent."

Caine then said "Alright, so just charge it to my room if its more than 140, please. Also, let the lady know if you do, so she doesn't question it."

The attendant happily responded, "Of course sir. I'll just need your name or room number, so I can have the hotel invoice you correctly."

Caine replied "I'm Richard Caine."

The attendant responded " Thank you . Don't forget your armour, we wouldn't want to have to send that up with the bill." and pointed toward a bin which housed his folded clothes and the cobbled together Elite Riot Armour.

Caine chuckled and nodded, going to pick up the tote "No, that wouldn't be good for my image at all."

After that he brought the tote to his car, locked the armour in a small footlocker which also housed his arguably vast amount of caps, and returned the bin to the boutique. Then he headed up towards the tower, hoping that the rooms did not cost a small fortune. The large ornate metal doors were open to the breeze, showing a beautiful and well lit lobby. Caine went over to the round mahogany reception desk and spoke to the woman who was stationed there, saying "I'd like to rent a room, please."

"No problem, I have a few available options. I have an Ambassador's Suite open, six of our luxury rooms, and most of the standard rooms", saying the word standard as if it left a bad taste in her mouth."Which of these would you be interested in today, sir?"

"I'm afraid I am not very familiar with your pricing options. What would each choice cost me?" Caine responded.

"The Ambassador Suite is 4000 caps per night, the Luxury rooms are 600 caps, and the standard rooms are a reasonable 80 caps." The receptionist replied.

"I'm afraid I'll have to reserve a standard room, since the cap flow is a bit tight in my business these days." Caine said, faking disdain towards the standard room.

"Everyone seems to have been hit hard of late. You'll be in room 204, here's the key." said the receptionist, then she asked, "Will you be requiring the services of our bellhop today, sir?"

"Yes I will, actually. I'll show him to my vehicle." Caine said, slightly surprised that they had a bellhop.

The receptionist then pressed a button and a Mr. Handy, painted to look dressed in red porters clothes, came over saying "Yes, sir. If you'll just show me your luggage, I will move it to your room in a timely and orderly fashion."

Caine showed the robot to the car and pulled out the small footlocker which contained his armour, guns, and his money, and was locked by a prewar puzzle lock which was supposedly unpick-able, since it required the use of two separated keys, one of which caine carried, the other of which he locked inside another box in one of the seat-like footlockers.

The robot brought the box back towards the hotel while Caine went back over to Ling's Boutique, and he lost site of the bellbot just as it entered the hotel lobby. Inside, Tanner was apparently finally finishing getting her dress tailored, and had just stepped out of the back room in front of a tall, dark haired, well-built woman, saying "Thanks for all your help, Ms. Murphy!"

The woman responded cheerily, "Please, call me Michaela. Mrs. Murphy was my mother!"

"So, how much did this getup cost?" Caine asked, showing disdain.

Michaela replied, "Almost 350, but it's beautiful. Definitely worth it!"

"Charge it to 204, I'll pay for it when we leave." Caine said.

"Absolutely sir. 204, got it. The Front desk should know about it in an hour or so." Michaela said.

"Thanks." said Tanner, shaking Michaela's hand.

"Oh, do you carry regular clothes as well? You know, tees and work pants?" Caine asked

"Yeah, we do. Right over here!" Michaela said, her steady joviality starting to show either her boredom for the job, or some form of mania.

Caine saw each shirt or pair of pants plastered inside a poster frame, stacked in piles on a metal table, and asked "So, I'm guessing these are just display models, and the rest of the stock is in back?"

"Of course. Just let me know which you want and I'll go get them!" Michaela said, her hopefully false joviality still present.

"I just want a couple of long-sleeve shirts and cargo pants. I'd recommend you get similar, Madison." Caine said to the women.

Michaela went into the back room and came out carrying six pairs of cargos and eight shirts, half in Caine's size, or close enough, and half in Tanner's size. One of the shirts in Caine's pile was from the Smithsonian, another was grey with big black lettering saying ARMY, which Caine thought was probably a Physical Training shirt, the third was from the Fancy Lads company, and the fourth was black, and had a symbol which seemed familiar to him. Upon closer inspection, the symbol was the Lucky 38's, and when he unfolded it he noticed it showed the Vegas skyline, with the Vegas sign and lucky 38 lining up perfectly.

"Where did you get that shirt from? The Lucky 38 is on the other side of the country." Caine asked

"A caravan out of Canterbury came around a few weeks ago, had a few dozen of these. Mr. Ling was interested, and so he cleaned the guy out. He apparently made the right choice, these two are the last I have." said Michaela

The two of them walked toward the Hotel, wearing almost matching garments, like they had chose for it to happen. Just as they got out of what caine guessed Michaela thought was earshot, he heard her start laughing, although it was faint because of the distance between them, '...Probably making jokes about us. Hey, at least she was bored and not crazy." was the first thing Caine thought when he heard that, but Tanner decided to cut off his thought processes.

The first thing that came out of her mouth was "Hypocrite."

"Hmm? What did I do?" Caine asked, confused and worried he had missed her trying to start a conversation.

"The first thing you said to me after you dumped the gear was that I shouldn't buy anything expensive, and look what _you_ bought." Tanner said, pointing out his, to her, obviously expensive suit.

"Three things. First, I actually have the money to spend on this, and it was half the price of yours. Second, It was either I buy this and you get that, or at least something presentable, or we don't get the room, I'm so grimy from not having water access that I need to cover up as much as possible, or I won't fit in. And third, ungrateful much? I'm _buying _that beautiful, expensive dress _for you_, if you didn't catch the hint of me charging it to the room, which _I'm_ paying for." Caine said, angrily.

They went up to the room in silence, Tanner to worried to speak, and Caine having nothing to say

"Look, If you're covering the room anyway, do you want to get room service? I've always want to, and the menu looks new. It's got all the phone extensions on it,"Tanner said, trying to alleviate the tension, then she picked up the phone,"Sounds like the phone is working too"

"Wait, Wha? Let me see that!" said Caine, grabbing at the handset. putting it up to his ear, he heard a dial tone, and so he responded "Yeah, sure. Let's call down, see if the menu is correct first."

He dialed the extension for room service, and the phone began to ring. Once, twice, thrice it rang, with no one answering, so caine was satisfied that either the extension changed or there was, in fact, no room service.

"I'll call down to the front desk, see if they have the number." Caine said, dialing the extension for the front desk.

The receptionist picked up almost immediately after the first ring and coolly said," Front Desk. How may I help you, sir or madam?"

"I'm wondering about the room service menu. Do you still offer the service, and if so, is the menu in the room up to date?" Caine asked

Professionally, the receptionist responded,"Yes, we do still offer Room Service, although I don't know if your menu is up to date. We offer everything from the original menu, with a few modifications, and even a few new ones. I can transfer you down to the kitchen, and I'll have a newer menu sent up with the cart. I do apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused."

Caine replied, "Perfect".

_In Fallout 3, Tenpenny tower was just the tower, and you could either decide to eradicate the "zombies" inside the metro station entrance nearby, kill all of the residents of the tower and let the ghouls take it over, or convince enough of the residents to live with the ghouls and make Tenpenny allow it. In the history of DC for this story, the Lone Wanderer convinced them to live with the ghouls, which made them realise the benefit of trading with the outside._

_The trade with the outside caused the tower to expand into a trading town, building new walls to include the parking lot and a store called _Lucky's_. The area between _Lucky's_ and the tower had become packed with houses and shops, built out of brick and wood if they were close to the tower and high quality sheet metal or scrap closer to the shop. The outpost that the main characters see is almost the size of a moderate town, since it circled all the way around the tower._

_The "Zombies" were in fact ghouls, humans who had been exposed to an ungodly amount of radiation and mutated instead of dieing. Some of the ghouls were in fact feral, but most of them were sane and normal, albeit missing skin. Mr. Tenpenny didn't see the difference between them._

_Caine actually got duped out of a little more than 800 caps, as the Type 93 is worth 500 caps in perfect condition, and raider armor 180. So 8 50% condition T93s would be 2000, and 5 pairs of 35% Raider armor would be 315. He lost 815 caps because he didn't know the values of his goods, something that's really important to know when there are no regulations on sales at all._

_Most of Post-War America has no power, even 212 years after the apocalypse, with the NCR and Mojave being some of the only places with stable power, not including the vaults and a few military installations. Other than the NCR, and a few other places you'll hear of in later chapters, Caine hasn't seen any power, and definitely not working telephones._

_Also, for those trying to keep track (or confused by my last comment), the date in this chapter is January 22, 2282. (Caine started his journey Oct 19, 2281 and 3 months and 3 days have passed, making it Jan 22, 2282)_


	7. To Big Town

_February 22, 2282_

Stepping out of the shower, Caine swiped a towel over the mirror to clear the fog on it, Then got to grooming himself. The silver beard he was wearing made him look at least 20 years older, but he couldn't conscience shaving it all off, since it was a family trait that he could trace to at least before the great war.

So he just cleaned it up, and cut his hair shorter, showing off the very light blond undertones which made his beard and hair the silvery appearance he was so proud of. After he finished grooming himself, he redressed in the Medical liner from a suit of Power Armour, the ARMY tee-shirt and a pair of cargoes, then put the armour on over it, minus VICE's favorite home, the elite riot helmet. Then, he went into the kitchen and began to cook himself breakfast, but keeping enough on hand in case Tanner was hungry.

The smell of eggs and bacon cooking woke Tanner, who rolled over in her bed, groaned, and asked,"Why are you up so early?"

Caine said, "It's like quarter of seven, I'm normally up this early. How do you like your eggs?"

Tanner responded, "But why get up this early?"

"I always wake up before the sunrise. Part of my morning routine; my morning meditation, if you will. There's still five minutes until it rises, if you want to catch it," Caine said, snidely adding "and you still haven't answered my question."

"Surprise me." Tanner said, rolling out of bed and throwing on a long shirt.

"OK. On another note, hot water's ready, I can brew up some coffee if you want it." Caine said, sliding the eggs out of the pan into his plate, then starting on Tanner's.

"Yeah, I'll have some." She replied, pulling a bag of what she thought was coffee out of her as she went into the kitchen the toaster finished it's cycle, making the toast almost pop out of it and Tanner jump a little. Caine just pulled the toast out and put it onto both plates, then slid Tanner's eggs on top of the toast.

"The bacon will be ready soon, and I'll start on the coffee. The shower is still warm, if you want to take one. It'll help wake you up, their soap smells amazing, although you've only got 5 minutes til the sun rises." Caine said to her, over his shoulder.

"Let's hope these eggs and the sunrise make up for your latest insult." Tanner said, annoyed.

Caine, now confused, asked, "Wait, what did I...?" Then realised she thought he meant by what he had said, and then corrected, "No no no, I didn't mean that as you _need_a shower, I was simply complementing the hotel's soap. Not that it wouldn't help, though."

"Yeah, _sure_. Whatever, I'll take a quick shower after the sunrise, be right back." Tanner said, going into the bathroom.

The bacon finished cooking just as she went into the bathroom, and the coffee didn't take long to brew. He poured her a cup of it, divided the bacon, and brought both plates to a table that was in the room, set the chairs to face out east, then went back to get Tanner's coffee, his tea, some sugar and the milk, calling through the bathroom door "The food's already on the table, just come and get it."

He opened up the curtains to the dark sky, just beginning to turn purple as the sun was getting ready to crest over the horizon.

He called to her, saying "You'd better hurry up, you've got two minutes or so until the sun rises."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming out now." Tanner yelled through the door. She came out and sat in the chair next to Caine, eyeing but not yet touching her food.

Slowly, the horizon shifted from it's purple hue to an orange, a majestic orb beaming warming light over the ocean, just barely visible over the ruins of DC. The sun, signalling the dawn of a new day, was just beginning to crest over the horizon, seemingly drawing closer to the tower with every passing minute.

"Wow, That's beautiful. Almost worth being tired all day." Madison quipped

"Just go take your shower, or eat the food I made for you." Caine replied offhandedly, paying more attention to the sun and his morning ritual than to her.

She begrudgingly went into the bathroom and took her shower, then came back and began eating the breakfast, which had only slightly taste of the eggs set her aback, they were much better than any she had had before.

With her mouth half stuffed with eggs and toast, she said, "Holy crap, these are _really_ good!"

Caine, now feeling accomplished, commented "You'd be amazed what I can do with a little bit of butter and some salt."

Tanner looked thoughtful, then replied, "You're being nicer to me all of a sudden. Is this a trick to get some?" she wanted to know.

"No, I'm in a good mood because it's shaping up to be a beautiful day" Caine replied honestly, "but if you feel like offering just let me know" he added.

"So you _do_ want to have sex with me" Madison declared, she knew he would.

"You're female, grown up, not horrifically mutated and you've got a pulse" Caine replied, "that's just about my entire criteria" he told her.

"Well _you_ don't match _my_ criteria" Madison told him indignantly. "And you could have at least said I was pretty" she complained.

Caine grinned. "I didn't say you weren't sweetheart, I just don't have that as a core requirement." he replied with a chuckle. "Look, I'm not going to try anything without an invitation, but if your high standards ever drop, make sure to let me know." he requested.

"Are you just having fun with me?" the girl wanted to know.

"Apparently that's not on the cards, so no." Caine replied, still amused. "I'll go pay the bill and bring my stuff back to the car. I hope to be out of here in the next few hours" he told her, picking up the box of caps .

"What if I want to stay?" she responded, pouting.

"If you can make forty caps a day, _and_ keep the respect of the town, be my guest. Not to mention it depends on how tight knit the Hub 2.0 community is, if they'd let you stay. I'd rather keep moving instead of having to deal with dual citizenship." Caine quipped

"Wait, Hub 2.0? Let me guess, some big trading city in your precious NCR." Tanner guessed.

"Correct! Ten points to Madison!" Caine quipped, then explained "The Hub is a major trading city located in southern California. It's a large community of traders, barterers, gamblers, and other, shall we say ... interesting scum. Not to mention a stopoff point for caravans going north to Shady Sands, Junktown, and the Mojave and south to the Boneyard. It is also one of the core states of the NCR, with representatives from it having a major say in the affairs of the country. They were the ones who originally backed the cap as currency." Caine told her.

"Yeah , thanks for the history lesson. It seems like it'd be difficult to get residency, so I'll stay with you, for now." Tanner replied

"I'm bringing my stuff down then paying the bill. Let's meet at the car in say, an hour?" Caine said, picking up VICE.

She nodded, again chomping away at her food. Caine slid on the helmet, the airtight chemical seals with his armour connecting with an audible hiss, pulling air away from his head, then filling with filtered air.

"Welcome back, Sergeant. How did we make out on the tunnel delving?" VICE asked.

"Not so well. After we got hit by that EM Pulse, the helmet was fried. The only thing that saved you was the Geo-mapper, it apparently had almost enough storage space to hold on to you, along with most of the maps. After that went off, the Hellion's hangar collapsed, and I almost got killed getting back through the tunnels. Oh, can you shut off the chem seal and air filtration for now? I don't want to waste the filter." Caine replied

"If I do, I can filter out my voice but it will probably be audible through the helmet." VICE responded.

"I realize that. If you keep the chatter to a minimum, no one will know you exist." Caine told him.

VICE responded, "Affirmative", which was followed by a similar hiss, with normal air being pushed into his face.

After that, Caine decoupled the hoses on the cheeks of the helmet from the mouth, twisted the cylindrical air filter until it clicked, then refitted the hoses to their nozzles on the mouthpiece. Then he took his dress suit, which he had hung on the curtain rod, pulled it off of it's hanger, and folded it into a suitcase, tacking the tie-tack and cuff-links to the suitcase's document pocket. He picked that and a lock-box which he kept his numerous caps in, went down to the lobby and paid the bill, then brought those back to serenity. After that, he went to the largest armour shop in the hotel-turned-town, hoping to find tanner there.

Tanner had actually ran out while Caine was folding his suit, and had already found herself some armour by the time he arrived, and had just completed the purchase. She still had the caps Caine had given her, all two hundred of them, so she bought herself Reinforced Leather armour. She found that her measurements for the dress didn't equate to measurements for the armour, and so it fit very snugly, almost like a second skin, with accordion like elbow and knee pads, allowing a normal range of movement in those joints. She couldn't decide if that was a blessing in disguise, since the leather in the rest of the armour was also very supple and stretched with her movements easily, or if it was a bad thing, for she worried about the whole thing tearing at it's seams as she moved. She eventually decided it a blessing in disguise, because the leather didn't squeak or ride when she walked, and it didn't seem apt to chafe her as other tight armours might.

She turned and was about to head to the car when she noticed Caine moving towards her, so she asked, "Good, I was about to head back to the car. What do you think of my armour?"

"Seems tight... but as long as it protects you, it works. I'm heading over to the gun store, see if I cant get any more ammo for my guns." Caine said to her.

"You could have at least told me if it looks good on me. I'll be waiting in the car." Tanner said, starting to walk towards the road.

Walking towards the gun store, he stopped, turned towards her, and called back, "That's not a core requirement of armour. But, I've got to admit, it is flattering to your form."

She didn't respond, but Caine could have sworn that she had more of a skip in her step after he said that. Dismissing it, he went to the gun store, and bought roughly two magazines for each of his firearms. Back at the car, Tanner noticed that, luckily, the passenger door was unlocked, so she wouldn't look like an idiot with what she told Caine. She slid into the passenger seat and got comfortable, expecting for a long wait.

After less than a minute of her sitting, the radio came alive, and very clearly said "Good day, Ms. Tanner. The sergeant will be back in just a few minutes."

She, being superstitious of radios that _talk to people_, jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut. Then, feeling slightly stupid, she leaned on the roof of the car, attempting to look casual. As the radio had told her, Caine was back in only a couple of minutes, although it felt like an eternity to her.

"The radio, it ... it talked to me." Tanner said, glowing with fear and disbelief of the words that just came out of her mouth.

Caine, disappointed in VICE, mumbled, "Damn it, VICE. I said 'keep the chatter down'" then spoke to her, saying "Yes, I know. Get in and I'll let VICE explain it to you himself."

"You first." She responded. Sighing at her, to him childish fear, he slid into the driver's seat and spoke to the car.

"VICE, what happened to 'keep the chatter down'? Why'd you speak to tanner, when there was no reason to, tactically?" Caine demanded of him as he slipped off the helmet and put it in a bolted down metal box.

"I apologize, Sergeant. I believe that we would be better served if she knew of my existence before we all are in the heat of battle. On a similar note, I've finished my analysis of the schematics packages you uploaded, before the unfortunate incident at the hellion. One of the schematics is corrupted, but I have the details of what it was supposed to be. The rest of them are fine." VICE replied, making Tanner jump.

"Probably a good idea, just please consult me first next time. What do I need to make one of the extensions?" Caine asked, nonchalantly.

"If you mean the visor, I'll send it to your HUD when we get to a workbench. I don't have the schematics for the VIVEC or the Medical Liner. You should know how to make the weapons module by now." VICE replied.

Madison asked, "Wait, where are you? Maybe we can help you look for more tech schematics."

"You misunderstand, my dear. I am right here, in the Highwayman, and the helmet, even the FAL could support me if it had a bit more storage capacity." VICE replied.

"So what, you're a computer program, a piece of software? Even artificially intelligent, maybe?" Tanner asked.

"Precisely. You figured out that I am an AI faster than the sergeant did." VICE said, causing tanner to stick her tongue out at caine, although she couldn't quite figure out VICE added, "I can show Caine how to make a piece of headgear that will allow me to assist you during combat."

Caine quipped to her, "If you act like a child I'll have to treat you like one, doll."

Ignoring his well deserved comment, she asked "So what can you do, exactly?" then added, "No offense, I didn't mean it as ..."

VICE cut into her addition, saying "Don't worry about it, I know what you meant. I can provide tactical data, break through almost any form of encryption, and, in the master helmet, the one the sergeant normally uses, I can do other things, like area mapping and motion sensing."

"Not to mention the full HUD. Ammo counter, mini-map, aim assist with view finder, vision augmentation modes, and all kinds of other stuff." Caine added.

"Ok. Smith Casey's garage is near Big Town, and is probably on the pre-war maps. We should go that way. You boys can build me that neato toy, and we can fix up the damage to the car. Not to mention, Big Town is almost always under attack by muties." Tanner said, which VICE responded to by starting the car rolling, which she could only assume meant he concurred.

"Great, now with both of you in league, I'll get no say in where my car is going." Caine complained.

"Well, do you have a better idea of where to go? You did hire me as a guide because you _don't_ know the area well." Tanner responded.

"Its just I ... but ... its a good idea, let's go." Caine stumbled and put himself at the mercy of her judgement.

"Good." Tanner said, feeling both accomplished and grateful.

The car began to pick up speed and followed the roads toward Pimmit Hills and Smith Casey's Garage, the closest points to where this "Big Town" was, based on Tanner's descriptions. While that was occurring, Caine just leaned back in the driver's seat, allowing VICE to drive, talking to Tanner instead.

"So, what do you plan on doing when we get you to Canterbury?" Caine asked her.

Thoughtfully, she responded "To be honest, I don't know yet. They could probably use another guard for the caravans, or maybe a waitress at that rest stop."

"I thought the whole point of you leaving there was to get away from the danger. Being a _Caravan Guard _is considered a dangerous profession." Caine told her.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I'm picking up weapons discharges near Springvale Elementary school. Should I divert course to investigate?" VICE said.

Caine quickly responded, "Yeah, go for it. "

Turned to Tanner, Caine said, "We'll _finally_ get to see if you're a good shot." Then put on the helmet and readied the FAL. As the car moved closer to the old world school, the crack of R-91's became more apparent, as did the sounds of other weapons being fired. Then, just as the car ground to a halt, Caine heard something he had learned to dread, the distinctive sound of a plasma rifle, or even worse, perhaps a Plasma caster. The car parked itself near the edge of a damaged raised highway . Although not enough to reach flatly to the rest of the highway, it was long enough that it could be considered high-ground.

He attached the scope he had bought back in flagstaff but hadn't yet used, leaned over the guard rail, and had his fears realised. Crouching behind a few lined up street barriers were three T-45d Power Armoured paladins, two of whom were carrying R-91s and the third was carrying a Plasma Caster, a five foot long lance of instant gooification. They were currently engaging a group of roughly a dozen raiders, cowering with good reason inside a mostly destroyed building. The thing Caine noticed first was an odd pattern of navy blue stripes adorning their armour, and a crimson cross on the helmet and another one seemingly as a background to the Brotherhood symbol on the chestplate of the paladin carrying the caster.

Caine, now extremely worried about these paladins, snuck back to the car. From there, he quietly opened the rear door, unlocked on of the seat/footlockers, pulled out the one pulse grenade he had left from his Hellion adventure, and clipped it to his belt. Then he moved back up to his firing position and took aim upon the building, waiting for a shot on the raiders.

Almost as soon as he was set up, a raider popped his head up out of a window and Caine squeezed the trigger. The round hit the high on her head, tearing away scalp and skull, spraying grey matter all over her compatriots and killing her instantly. At that signal, the paladins again opened fire on the building, killing two more of the raiders, injuring some, and significantly weakening the building. An audible creak came from the second floor, the wall preparing to crumble, and then a crack from the base of the on-ramp, a bullet burrowing into the skull of a well armoured raider who had been trying to motivate his fellows, further demoralizing them. Caine presumed that he was the leader of their little tribe, as they began to retreat when he hit the ground. The paladins opened up on them, a spray of bullets and plasma converting them to red, tan and luminescent green goo, just as Caine pulled the pin on his pulse grenade. He pegged it into the helmet of the paladin with the crosses on him, causing him to recoil in surprise and from the electrical burst in his eyes.

The sudden electromagnetic discharge caused the armour of all three of them to lock, making the cross paladin fall to the ground and the other two become like living statues, unable to move the armour. Caine ran down to the cross paladin, pulled the helmet off of him, and aimed the FAL, with the scope still attached, at the man's aged but powerful face.

"Why the fuck did you do that! We had the bastards!" The paladin screamed at Caine, the man's voice still youthful.

"Dealing with you, Plague." Caine sneered

"Richard, wait! They aren't the outcasts, they're the good ones! They're part of the remnant, they've helped the wasteland!" Tanner yelled out as she hurried over.

"Outcast? Why were the others cast out?" Caine asked, not worried about the paladins being able to move for another minute or so.

'Cross' answered, "They followed the original mission of the Brotherhood, they are the 'plague'. We came out here and our elder decided that we stood a better chance if we bettered the entirety of the wasteland, not just our own men's experience of it. We know what happened to the Elders, that your government beat them by sheer virtue of numbers, and the unwillingness of the high command to recruit, but we had no idea back then."

Caine lowered the FAL, then asked, "Well, you can't be the rest of your order. Where are they?"

'Cross' replied, "Why should I tell you? You whacked me in the head with a pulse grenade, _and_ you're an NCR Ranger." Then added with a defiant smirk, "What, you thought I didn't notice? You probably shouldn't wear your armour or star if you don't want to draw attention to yourself around here. I was born out west, wanted to be one of you guys when I was a young boy, until your government went pair-shaped, turned itself into the regency."

Caine said, "Look, I did fight you guys, and I was with the NCR, just... not that one. I was with the Republic."

'Cross' said," Oh, you must be the guy who showed up near primm, claiming you came from another universe. Better show you how to get to the boss, Car-man."

Caine paused for a second, dumbstruck at how much the older man knew, before helping the paladin, who looked to be in his late eighties, to his feet.

The paladin started towards the car almost immediately, speaking with Caine as he walked. "After the Wanderer destroyed the Citadel, er... the Pentagon as you know it, we reached out for assistance. It seems the Mid-westerns got in contact with the Mojave chapter, and they told us to watch out for you. They said you were heard talking about a parallel universe, where the NCR was still the Republic, like when I was young, and Consul's Legion being a dictatorship under 'Caesar'. What really interested them was your working car."

Then he called out "Jenkins!" and waved a hand over at one of the others, who ran over and produced a map of the area which he laid on the car's hood.

"Our largest base is now here, in Vault 101. The residents allowed us in since we 'are' the US army, and they'd heard of what the Wanderer did to us. Amata Aldovar is the Overseer, and likes to greet every new arrival. She can show you to Sarah, er... Elder Lyons. The password is Reemergence." Jenkins said.

"We have to finish our patrol, but they'll let you in without us." 'Cross' added.

"Fine, but why are you telling me all of this? And how long is this invitation open?" Caine asked.

"Well, I'm telling you because Sarah thinks you're the last, best hope for a future American civilization, If the stories she's heard are even half-truths. And we'll keep the password good until the end of the week." 'Cross' said.

The idea of the Brotherhood coming to a ranger for help made him chuckle, but he asked Jenkins to roll up the map and asked VICE and Tanner what they thought he should do. Tanner sided with the paladins, but VICE told him that, based on the information he had, he wouldn't work with them just yet. But he added that 'Cross' either fully believed what he was saying or was a perfect liar.

Caine, weary of anyone with the brotherhood symbol on him, chose instead to head to Big Town. He had Tanner show VICE where it was and was alerted to more gunfire once they moved close to the town.

Tanner coyly asked "What is it with you and getting into fights with everybody?"

"It's not my fault that life gives me so many opportunities for target practice!" Caine said.

Cresting over the last hill before the town, Caine saw a group of somethings that were big, green, mean, and ugly. He saw Super Mutants, standing about nine feet tall, armoured with mostly scrap metal, and carrying a medley of weapons, they were definitely a motley gang. The best armoured one of them was carrying and R-91, the rest of a dozen of them carried various cobbled together melee weapons; Clubs made of gears jammed onto to wide pipes, a board with some nails through it, and more than a few sledgehammers. There were already three bodies piled up in front of the bridge into the town, but the shots were to few and far between to deal with all of the mutants before the town was overrun, and they missed their marks most of the time anyway.

Caine jumped out of the car with the FAL at the ready and his sidearms in their holsters at his hips. Tanner came out of her side of the car and knelt down at the top of the ridge. Just as they both got into position, the mutant captain called out "Charge!" and all of the other mutants raised their weapons and did so.

Caine switched the FAL to Automatic and opened up on the charging mass in controlled bursts. Four bursts hit four targets, blood gushed from the mutants' wounds and they fell to the fired three rounds, two at the crowd and one at the alpha-mutant. The round she fired towards the alpha missed it's mark, and surprisingly ricochetted off of it's armour, causing it to turn and roar at her, charging at her and firing.

Luckily for her, the R-91 was never praised for it's accuracy and Caine had eight rounds left. He fired one round, clipping the front of it's neck and causing blood to spurt forward, out of the wound. One of the last spurts flew almost 15 feet, hitting the ground mere inches from where Tanner had set up, causing her to retreat behind the car.

Caine got up and called out, "Hey Muties! Time to return to your master!" which he quickly followed up by hammering the last seven rounds at the slow moving mutants.

Two more fell, leaving two standing 25 yards away. Angered at the death of their friends, both of them charged straight at him. Caine dropped the FAL and pulled out the MP-9 and 9 mm pistol, clearing the holsters just as they charged. They closed the distance quickly, but a hail of 9 mm rounds proved detrimental to their advance, and their health. Caine put four quick volleys down range, switching between each target with each burst. The first burst slowed the mutants, and the second caused their legs to buckle from pain and blood loss, making them slide, bounce and roll towards Caine. Being quite massive, neither slid very far, more akin to them diving at Caine's feet and coming up short, and causing the ground to quake slightly.

Seeing the final two fall, the residents of Big Town came out to meet their saviours. The town was not very large as Caine found out, usually housing no more than roughly three dozen residents in half a dozen buildings, and it was in it's normal range after a few mutant attacks, about two dozen.

"That, that was amazing! The two of you killed a dozen charging mutants like it was nothing! If you hadn't gotten here, they probably would have killed all of us, or worse. Surely you must want something of us." said a young man, no older than 20 who was chosen as the speaker for the town, apparently, as no one else tried to speak.

Caine responded, "No, I don't, not yet. All I want is a written pledge that you will assist me when I call on you."

Tanner whispered to him, "What? Why don't you have them fix up the car, or pay us, or whatever? What's with this pledge?"

Caine whispered back. "You'll see, I have a whole plan. Hopefully it'll make the wasteland better and bring me some closure. Even if those plans don't flesh out, I can always retire at tenpenny and get a summer home here."

She replied, " Ok... I hope you're including me in this plan of yours, or I've gotten the short end of the stick."

Caine said, "I haven't decided what I want to do with you yet, Time will tell."

"Yes, yes. We'll do that, sign this pledge of yours. What choice do we have, at such a disadvantage." Said the young man who Caine could only assume was the town's mayor.

They wrote up the whole pact, then made another copy of it and both parties signed both, without so much as a peep, unquestioning of the wisdom of their young mayor and the outsider. Then Caine went back up to the car, leaving Tanner to make sure the agreement was signed by the residents of the town. He got a map case from the vehicle and, when everyone signed, he rolled one up and slid it into the round case.

"So, why did you make the second copy?" asked the mayor.

Caine responded while returning the map case to the Serenity, "For the sake of accountability. Everyone can know the terms and conditions and neither party can change the pledge without the other's consent, since both have to match for any changes to be valid."

"Ahh, that's a very wise practice indeed. I must keep that in mind for my other dealings." said the mayor, staying a bit away from the car.

Tanner jumped into the passenger seat, and caine started the car, the thunderous roar startling all of the Big Town residents except the mayor.

_The Hellion is a powerful, heavily-armed aircraft, located in Buena Vista, which can be found during Fallout: Tactics, and is, surprisingly, ignored by the Midwestern BOS. The Calculator, the antagonist in the game and the only entity other than the PC that knows of the bomber and cares about it was destroyed in the canon ending to the game, although, paradoxically, the game is considered non-canon in many circles._

_ The Master was the antagonist of the original Fallout game, was considered a god by some humans and mutants, and built an army of super mutants to attempt to take over the west coast. Canonically, he is killed under his cathedral, with a tactical nuclear device either causing his death, or the detonation of which is caused by his death._


	8. Knocking at the Gate

"Alright VICE, bring it in. Lets get to work on the replacement windows." Caine called, making Tanner groan, for she knew he meant for her to help him as well. She got out of the car and looked around the shop. To her amazement, the shop looked fully stocked and almost untouched by the devastation. She noticed a few panes of glass in the corner which looked like they would fit into the doors and windscreen hole in the highwayman, and had all it would take to make the repairs.

After taking in the sight of the pristine garage, she asked, "When did we become a group? I thought I was just an employee."

"You are my employee, but you've shown your usefulness, so I trust we can work on the windows without incident." Caine replied.

Tanner couldn't figure out why sometimes it seemed Caine hated her, and sometimes he liked her. Sometimes he was a jerk and other times he was nice, and it confused her. After a bit of instruction, she and caine pulled the doors apart and replaced the windows, then replaced the windscreen. After they finished that, Caine began working with VICE to build the visor, which gave Tanner some time to herself. She used the time to clean her well worn rifle, which she could tell was in need of a good cleaning because it belched a lot of smoke after every shot, kind of like the muskets people used 500 years before.

She carefully disassembled the rifle, worried about having parts fly off of it because of it's mistreatment. She slowly, almost lovingly, cleaned and oiled everything every piece, careful not to leave any fouling anywhere. She used up the entire rest of the bottle of gunpowder solvent cleaning it, although there hadn't been much to begin with. Testing the action, she still found it stiff and clunky, something she hadn't been worried about because she attributed it to the fowling that was bound to have accumulated inside the gun. She pulled the bolt back out and filed a little bit off the sides, careful not to file the ejector. After an hour of filing, fitting and retesting, she got the bolt down to where she wanted.

Caine finished working on the visor long before she finished cleaning her gun, but chose to clean his guns instead of bothering her. His were in considerably better condition than he expected her rifle to be, but he still felt like he had let them sit a little to long without a good cleaning. The handgun was actually in the worst condition, even though he rarely used it and always cleaned all of his guns together. Having had experience cleaning all three (four if the Varmint rifle hadn't have been eaten by that deathclaw) of his firearms, he finished with the MP-9, by far in the best condition and so the last one he cleaned, just as Tanner finished with her modifications.

He picked up the visor and put it on Tanner's head, showing her how to fit it to her, use it and take it off. He explained all of it's features, and how to enable each of them. On the side were three switches, one which controlled the power for it, the second controlled the vision enhancement modes, and the third controlled the geomapper module's power. Then he showed her how to install a weapons module in the rifle, which popped up onto both their HUD's and slid to the lower right corner, although slightly smaller and above his own gun on caine's HUD.

The 'visor' was actually just a single eyepiece, earpiece and microphone that were mounted inside a combat helmet, with the eyepiece sitting over her non-dominant eye, which she could see through via a camera in the front of the eyepiece. She found it slightly disorienting at first, the camera giving her left eye a slightly lower contrast image, and she hoped she would quickly get used to the feeling of it.

She gasped "This, this is amazing! How does it work?"

Caine replied "I was hoping you wouldn't ask me that, but I should know better, shouldn't I?", picking up a foot wide grey cube.

VICE said, "You never do learn, don't you?" causing Tanner to blink in pain as the earpiece adjusted it's volume, starting off much to loud for her comfort.

Caine responded "Apparently not. Before you ask, VICE didn't even know what this was when we first found it, but it's apparently a prototype miniature manufacturing plant, of sorts. The army was doing research into micro-computing for it's NBC bunkers, and had gotten as far as building something that could make this thing, but couldn't get the chips to work in most things. They had gotten enough to work in the helmet, but VICE couldn't work at his full potential and wasn't really sentient when I first found him. He could think, but not functionally until I did some modifications to the helmet, made most of the chips work in tandem."

Tanner didn't quite believe that Caine was that smart, but she wanted to get to canterbury and be rid of him, so she focused on getting comfortable with the visor instead. Once she was, and Caine finished checking all the lines under the car and buffing out the road scratches, they got into Serenity and drove towards a small town that the locals called Megaton, since it was built around an undetonated but defused Chinese nuclear bomb, Tanner guiding the vehicle's digital driver to it.

After only a few minutes, VICE worriedly said "Sergeant, I think we have a problem."

Caine hissed "What is it, VICE? Let me guess, more gunfire."

"Yes, but only from the town that was speaking of. They seem to be firing on what looks like a piece of armour, with five foot-soldiers."

"How big is it?" Caine asked, starting to become worried.

"Four to five metres long, two to three wide. I'd guess four or five closely packed mutants, maybe 10 if they're humans, if it is an Infantry Fighting Vehicle, or even a standard APC." VICE replied.

"Oh no, it's much worse..." Tanner said

Caine exclaimed "What could be worse than an IFV!", cutting off Tanner.

"First of all, a _Tank_. Second, If you'd let me finish I could have already told you. It's a mutant, Pa called 'em Behemoths, but he also said that the wanderer killed all of 'em. They're fifty foot tall, fire-hydrant mace carrying brutes with the brains of squirrels and hides of stone. Small arms don't do much damage to them, It took a _squad_ of paladins using Fat Men to kill one. " Tanner said

"Well, our friendly neighborhood wanderer found a away to kill not just one, but almost all of them, apparently. We'll just have to find the weak spot." Caine said, issuing a challenge to himself.

He pulled the car to the side of the road, putting a large boulder between it and the car, grabbed a frag mine and jumped out. The Behemoth was armoured in scraps of old cars and other things. Luckily for Caine, the armour for it's legs was branched from the extendable ladders from firetrucks, with doors metal plates and shopping carts making up the rest of it's armour.

Caine ran up behind it, closely following but not being detected by the five other mutants currently engaged in charging the gate, and began to climb up it's leg. The Behemoth apparently noticed the little man on the ladder, and tried to shake him off of it's leg. Caine wrapped his arms into the ladder, hanging on for dear life. Eventually, the mutant either began to believe it was just feeling non-existant things, or gave up on the futile endeavor, for the leg stopped moving, and Caine started his ascent again. He quickly got up the leg and found his way up to the base of the mutant's neck, then pulled out his combat knife, a 9 inch monstrosity, and jammed it into the thing' s hide. Then, using the blade, he cut a swath out of the back of the thing's neck, which began to emit a viscous black liquid and a foul odor. Cringing, he pulled the mine off his of the belt, jammed it shoulder deep into the behemoth's neck wound and armed it. As soon as he let it go, it began to beep, so he pulled his arm out quickly, sending a rope of black blood flying, and climbed down to the middle of it's back. Just as he got a good hold the mine blew, sending nick meat flying in an almost perfect ring, making the head of the thing pop up then come to a rest in roughly the same spot. Then, the corpse's knees buckled, sending it's top half, and caine, straight towards the ground. First, it landed on it's knees, causing the ground to quake, but not enough to make him lose his hold, then it began to pivot forward, smashing into the ground face first, surely breaking more than a few of it's facial bones, and causing Caine to bounce around on it's back. This bouncing caused him to hit his chest into the edges between two doors.

"What. The. Fuck! First the raiders, then regular mutants, and now a Behemoth! Somebody upstairs must _really_ not like you."Tanner said as he rolled off of the the behemoth, which he quickly regretted.

Caine coughed, spat up some blood, then said, "Maybe, but at least I'm good at not dieing. It's a shame that I had to use my last frag mine." then he groaned and said, "Damn, that hurts.I must have broken some ribs in that fall."

"I'm a little amazed that you actually did all that. It... It was pretty awesome seeing it go down like that." Tanner said.

"Let's go meet the sheriff. Hopefully I don't have to shoot at him." Caine said, readying up the FAL on his less painful side, the left one this time. Then he shuffled in his belt pouch, pulled out his ranger's star and pinned it to his chest.

Some metallic grinding came from behind the huge gate and it began to rise, the blades inside a jet engine set above the gate whirring. A man in a brown duster and sheriff's hat, carrying an R-91, ducked under said rising gate and came over to greet them.

"That's some mighty fine handiwork you did over there, son. Please, come on into town, our doc'll patch y'all up free a' charge. I imagine that you're definitely in a world of hurt from that rodeo." Said the man in the duster, lowering his assault rifle.

Caine lowered his rifle and stuck out his left hand, saying "Thanks. Sergeant Richard Caine, Sheriff ...?"

The man returned the hand shake and replied, "Simms. Lucas Simms, Sheriff and sometimes Mayor of Megaton."

"It's good to finally meet another man of the law out here. I was starting to think the whole Capitoline area was uncivilised." Caine said, beginning to waver slightly.

"Yes sir. Civilisation is hard to come by around these parts, just us and Rivet -" He stopped and put his arms out to catch Caine, who had fallen unconscious and falling towards him, then said "Whoa, we'd better get you to the doc right away!"

The sheriff said a few other things, and Caine felt himself being carried by two people somewhere, but he was to close to a total black out to know what was happening. When he did wake back up, the first thing he saw was Madison sitting in a chair in the corner with her rifle on her lap, asleep.

Softly and gruffly, caine said "Hey Tanner, Wake up! I'm the one who's supposed to be unconscious, not you."

"Huh..? Oh! Doc, he's awake, come in quick!" Tanner said, rousing from her nap. Then, gently she said, "Oh, you get a pass this time, but Tanner is my father, I'm Madison." then poked him softly in his left side, making him cringe.

"Ow, hey! You're just lucky that side's only bruised, my offer to feed you to cannibals still stands." Caine said, with all the power it had before drained of it because of his current condition.

'You're lying. We're too good of a team to get split up. You fight and get hurt, I offer combat support and keep you from pissing off the wrong people." She said, chuckling.

The doctor rushed in just as she said that, but before he could say anything Caine asked him "Seems to me that I've been given the short end of the stick, what do you think Doc?"

"Well, you're pretty lucky didn't break any of those ribs. You'll be healed up enough to leave in a few days, _if _you stay here and rest. She didn't get hurt, so if that's what you meant, then yeah, you got the short end." the doc said, sternly.

"Let me guess, I can't do any heavy lifting, no strenuous activities, but I'm good to walk around, yes?" Caine asked.

"Yeah. Just keep pressure off those ribs and you'll be fine. And before you get any ideas, spending the night with your lady friend or nova counts as strenuous." The doc said, smirking.

"Thanks for ruining my evening, Doc. Hey Madison, could you run up to the car and grab me a shirt? It's a little cold to run around without one. and the only purpose of doing so is already dashed." Caine asked, pouting.

"Yeah, stop your pouting. I'll be right back." Tanner said, walking towards the door, then called back "Oh, and I'm staying in the next room, so your plans for tonight were screwed from the start."

As the door closed, the Doc asked, "So, are you two...?" rolling his hands in the air.

"No, no. She's my guide, nothing more." Caine replied flatly.

"I only ask 'cause she was a little too concerned about you to be 'just a friend', if you catch my drift. I offered to let her sleep in the next room, wake her up when you did, but she didn't want to move. She was really worried about you, much more than simple travelling companions should be." The doc said.

"Are you implying that you think she fancies me? 'Cause that's what it sounds like." Caine asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Well, I ain't necessarily sayin' that, just that she was really worried about you. I mean real worried, not 'Oh god, my boss is going to die' worried, I mean family member or lifetime friend worried." Doc said, choosing his words carefully.

"Well, that's ...interesting. I'll have to figure out where this grand adventure is going to take us, now won't I? Thanks, Doc." replied Caine.

Madison came back in with a folded black shirt over her arm, without her hunting rifle. She had changed out of her bloodstained armour and into a tight fitting tee shirt and skinny jeans. She revealed the shirt on her arm to be the Lucky 38 complementary one, then gave it to Caine.

"You seemed to take a great interest in it, so I thought you'd want it." Madison said, deadpan.

"Thanks, I have been wanting a reason to wear this." Caine said, rolling his legs off of the bed and sliding on the shirt, causing him to wince as he brought his arms upward in an attempt to keep his body straight. Both sides ached dully, although his right side, with the cracked ribs, hurt a bit more than his left, bruised side.

Then he stood up, sending a bolt of pain up his side, but not enough pain to make him sit again. After a few minutes he had gotten used to moving to minimize the pain he went outside. The first person he ran into was none other than Lucas Simms.

"Hey Sergeant! How're ya doing? Not gonna collapse on me again, I hope?" Simms said, raising his arms slightly and smirking.

"Nope, but I am stuck here for the next couple of days, thanks to the doc. Anything I can do to help out around town?" Caine wondered.

"Well, I don't have anything, but you might speak with Moira, she did get a shipment in recently. A word of warning though; She's a little ... odd." said Simms , pointing towards a building with a commuter jet's wing on top.

"Thanks Sheriff, I'll go talk to her." Caine said, beginning to walk up the ramp towards the second tier of the town.

Luckily for him, the ramp wasn't very steep, since it would have been painful to walk up otherwise. He went inside the shop, which was called Craterside supply, judging by the sign over the door.

Almost as soon as his foot hit the floor the red haired woman behind the counter said, "Welcome to Craterside Supply!" sounding very jovial, almost childishly so.

"I'm looking for a way to be useful around town. I'm going to be stuck here for a few days and didn't want to be a drain." Caine said.

"Wait just a second, you're the guy who killed that behemoth, aren't you! The doc specifically told me that you were to do nothing strenuous." said the woman, still extremely jovial.

Caine, now slightly worried about her mental capacity because of her attitude, said "I know what the doctor said. Do you have any work or am I wasting my time?"

"I'm not sure I should be doing this, but yes, I do. I just got a shipment of 10 mil pistols in from a raider base that was cleared out, and I haven't even had time to unpack them, never mind check their condition, although I'm guessing they're in bad condition. I know some of them came from an army base, and the racks were still in the crates, so I was planning to use those for display stands."

After a few minutes of her incessant, senseless rambling, Caine asked, "So, how much am I getting paid to do this?"

Seemingly snapping back into focus, Moira responded "20% of the profits from the sale."

"20? I'm not some dumb hick from the bad part of New Orleans, I do my work well, and I'd expect no less than 60%" Caine said, trying to bait her into haggling to a good deal.

After a few minutes of their haggling, they both set on a 40/60 split in her favor, or 50/50 if most were in good condition or better when he finished, and he got to work on the crates. He pulled out the top rack in one of the crates and tore the N99's down three at a time, finding the best parts for two of the pistols and having one with bad parts, removing handguns that were entirely unsafe to fire. A little bit later, he ended up with a handful of spare parts and 10 N-99's in good to perfect condition, another 43 in moderate to good condition, and 6 in bad but workable condition, having only 5 that couldn't be rebuilt to a safe standard, and so needed to be removed from circulation and broken down into components for resale. The ratio of good condition to bad, although great when compared to the original condition of most of the guns and the norm for the capital wasteland, still seemed atrocious to Caine. After he got all the guns cobbled back together, he set to cleaning the guns and spare parts, hoping to get the handguns to work as smoothly as possible.

After a bit more time he finished cleaning the guns and signalled Moira, saying "Done. What else can I do?"

Amazed, she replied "Seriously? There's no way in heck you checked, repaired and cleaned a full crate of 10 mils in 3 and a half hours!"

"I have had some special military training. One of the big parts was firearms knowledge and use, including stripping and refitting. To be honest, that was actually slow compared to my average qualification times. I used to be able to field strip and reassemble my guns in 90 seconds, a good clean would take about 3 minutes. Caine said with an air of accomplishment, but also slight disappointment.

"I... I don't think I have anything else for you to do, unless you want to sweep the floor. You should go talk to Gob, over at Moriarty's, he'll have heard of something for you to do." Moira said, trying to get her mind off of his speed.

"Bar work, eh? Seems like a way to get trapped if the boss is unscrupulous." Caine said, making Moira frown.

"Well, that's how the poor thing got stuck here in the first place." Moira said

"So, who is he anyway? How will I know who to talk to?" Caine asked.

Moira responded, "He's a very unfortunate ghoul. He came here to make a little cash, maybe explore a little but. But Moriarty tricked him, got him to accrue a large debt, then forced him to work at the bar to pay it off. But, Moriarty also charged him room and board, so he wasn't making any progress on the the wanderer came by, asking for info about his father. I didn't have anything for him, but he did help me write my book." Moira said, starting to trail off about her book.

Caine said, "Wait, what about Gob?"

Snapping back to reality again, Moira said, "Oh, right! So anyways, the wanderer wanted info from Moriarty, but the bastard wouldn't give it to him, wanted him to pay for it. So, the wanderer shot him square in the head, and got the information he was looking for from Moriarty's room, I guess. After that, Gob took over the bar, since Nova does _not_ have any business sense at all."

"Well then, I guess I'll have to go talk to him then." Caine said, opening the door.

* * *

><p><em>The entire process that Caine did, the retrofitting of the guns and cleaning of them, had been almost ingrained into his soul, as the Rangers trained endlessly with every weapon available to them, which included the N-99 as it was being phased in as the US Army's service sidearm around the time of the great war.<em>

_One of the achievements in Fallout 3 was to find and kill all of the Super Mutant Behemoths, but the Broken Steel add-on adds in Super Mutant Overlords, who look like they're growing into Behemoths, so it's not impossible that there could be new ones if they kept getting into the FEV, or Forced Evolutionary Virus, serum._

_One of the quests in the game is to help Moira write her _Wasteland Survival Guide_, through getting limbs broken and body irradiated, scavenging for food and supplies, and other things. This guide apparently sells insanely well, for it is seen in limited numbers in the Mojave Wasteland in Fallout:New Vegas, travelling cross-country in less then four years._


	9. Fluctuations

Just as he was waking up, Caine heard Tanner say, "Mr President, wake up. The Brittanic emissary is due to arrive in an hour or so."

He groggily replied, "Thanks, Madison." then rolled out of bed. The first thing he noticed was his body; that he felt old, worn out, but still pretty energetic. The next thing he noticed was the mirror, the man standing in it. This man was wearing light blue striped sleepwear, and he looked disturbingly similar to his father when he had become advanced in years, with a few key differences. He brought his hands up to his face and rubbed it, noticed the man so similar to his father do the same, then realised exactly what Tanner had just said.

"Wait, Britannia? As in the old country of Great Britain?" He asked, trying not to show to much of his confusion.

"Yes, I do. Are you alright, Hun? You seem confused, disoriented." Tanner asked, seemingly worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll go get dressed, then." Caine said, trying to allay her fears. Then he went over to what he guessed was the door to a closet, opened it and stepped inside the walk-in closet. He saw rows upon rows of suits, in every colour imaginable, and his old aubergine suit folded on a pedestal of its own. Directly across from him, behind the pedestal, was a set of suits on mannequins. The one in the center of the bunch was a suit with a plaque which said 'Brits' on it, the first on its right said 'Quebec', on the left side was one with 'Canada', the second from the left had 'Alaska', the second on the right had just the letters 'CL', and one on the far left which said 'NCR'. Guessing that meant that the center suit was the one he, this older him, intended to meet the Brits in, he donned it. It was a fairly simple suit, which had a clean white shirt, black jacket, pants, and shoes, and a crisp blue tie, with cuff-links made out of white gold, and had 3 stripes, one blue, one red, and the center uncoloured. Spaced in a circle around the number 13, which was set in the center of the pin, were the symbols of the NCR; Caesar's, or perhaps Consul's, Legion; the Brotherhood of Steel; and two others he didn't recognize. He put on the suit and spun around to go back out to Tanner when he noticed a flag hanging over the door, which was similar to his cuff-links. The flag had the symbols, and set under each of them the names, of the Legion's 86 tribes, the Brotherhood of Steel, New Reno, the Reformed Mormon Church (the Crucifix) , New Vegas, New Reno, the Alaskan Union (an image of Alaska surrounded by 18 stars), the New Federation of Canada (the Maple Leaf with two stems), and Quebec (the Fleurdelisé with colours swapped). After seeing the banner, he realised that the two other symbols on his cuff-links were that of the Canadian Federation and Quebec, and went back out into his bed room to see if he could find a journal of his accomplishments.

After a few moments of searching 'his' desk, he found exactly what he was looking for. Apparently, the Brits had contacted the UAR's government roughly 18 months ago, if his last entry was written within the last week. They saw the expanding democratic government and saw that as a sign of American reconstruction. Hoping to create an alliance with the fledgling nation in an attempt at world peace, they sent an envoy to the Capitol Wasteland, as that was were the capital of the USA was, but were quickly hit by a band of marauding Super-Mutants. Luckily for them, patrols into the city had been started, to clear the way so reconstruction of the city could begin. One of the larger patrols was called to the GNR building to reinforce it's garrison in response to the attack, and they found the envoy under attack by the rear-guard of the band, and secured them then destroyed the band with a swift and efficient counter-assault, proving the military prowess of the new nation. Through their willingness to assist the obviously foreign envoys, they assumed the new nation as friendly and deserving of an international ally. That envoy and his guards were brought to the capitol of the United American Republic, the City of Philadelphia, where he became the ambassador to the nation. Since then relations between the UAR and Britannia had only strengthened both academically and economically, and they had begun talks of rebuilding Eurasia and South America, in hope of eventually creating one unified congress of Earth, with each rebuilt nation joining this government. In his calendar, July 4th 2325 was slated as the day of the Prime Minister's visit, followed by an address to the people of Earth.

Caine stepped out of his room into a short hall which led to the oval office. Inside, each of his chiefs of staff was sitting around a table, a name card sitting in front of them. Starting with his seat, which had the seal of the office of the president behind it, and going to the left sat Madison Tanner, Secretary of State; Consul Hannibal II, Secretary of the Interior; Daniel Johnson, Director CI/FBI; A PDQ-88/b Securitron, designated as John Smith, as Secretary of the Treasury; Gen. Aaron Kimball, Secretary of Defence; Dr. Angela Williams, Department of Science & Industry; Sunny Smiles, Undersecretary of Agriculture; and Jack Dire, Attorney General. Caine felt that he would have chosen each of these men and women because of their skills, but he also knew that, except for Tanner and Sunny, each most likely came from a major faction in the American Wasteland. He knew that Kimball was, or at least used to be, the president of the NCR, Hannibal was the leader of Consul's Legion, Johnson was a member of the Brotherhood, who he had actually hunted during the war, and Jack Dire came from Canada.

"Alright, so its 8:15, we've got 45 minutes 'til the delegation arrives. What do you all think of the new alliance?" Caine said, sitting at the desk.

"It's been 18 months of easy negotiation, I'm ready to rebuild the rest of the world, get Earth put back together, _Sergeant_." Tanner said.

At that, everyone looked up from their papers and Kimball mouthed the words "Are you sure?", which Tanner followed up with an almost invisible nod, which Caine barely picked up on, then they all changed to a different section of notes and Kimball spoke to Caine, saying "We'll have to be careful, though. We don't want to build any countries so that they can and want to oppose us, now do we Sergeant."

Consul retorted "True, but for right now, why don't we just bask in the friendship we are building?"

The rest of the Chiefs of Staff stayed quiet, and Caine noticed this, so he asked Sunny her opinion, and that of the Congress.

She replied, "Well, I do love the option, but I'm a little bit worried if we're going ahead too fast. I mean, we've known the Britons and their Prime Minister Chamberlain for 18 months, and I'm not sure I fully trust their Defence minister. The Congress overwhelmingly supports the move, but has also brought up similar concerns."

Caine replied, "Ok, I can see how we could have moved too quickly, but we've always been quick in our movements, and will have the advantage because of our size."

"Yes, I just hope we _won't_ have to have a show of force sometime in the future." Tanner said.

Dr. Williams was the next one to speak, "Well, in case we do in the near future, I have some news from the boys up in Boston. The Glasses and the upgrades to the VICE system that you asked for have been mostly completed, although I haven't been able to test the speech craft module as much as I would have liked. I've gotten it's lie detection accuracy to about 52%, and the emotion analyzer to 30%, so I wouldn't count on it's results, but I have them with me if you'd like to use them."

Caine interjected "Interesting. I will be using them, what else do you have for me?"

Continuing, Dr. Williams said "I also have the boys working on the Mark 3 Ranger Armour, with the full AI integration and the Automatic Chemical Support package, and I have four Recovery teams inside the remains Vault 0 and the Hellion's hanger. Its slow going because of the damage the Calculator caused while he was failing, but the R&D girls expect they should be able to build a working prototype within 6 months, and we should be able to have fully working models within 18 months. The Pitt's factories will have the AC-18 combat rifle prototype ready within the week."

"Good, good. Maybe some real world experience with the glasses will let VICE tune them better." Caine said, eliciting some strange looks from his staff.

Over the next 45 minutes, the various secretaries gave him very detailed reports on their departments, focusing especially on anything to do with the Britons, making Caine worry that they knew that he wasn't their President, although their continually calling him sergeant heavily reinforced that impression.

"Alright, you all know what I want from your departments. Let's all get to work, the emissary is due to arrive soon." Caine said, standing and walking towards the Red Oak double doors, a little worried about the conference, since he had no experience with the Britons. He grabbed the golden handle and turned it, the door swinging into the room, and stepped into the hall. As he did, the wall across from him began to blur and swirl, and the changing quickly encompassed all of his surroundings. Before his eyes the white plaster and blue rug changed into the steel walls and concrete floors of a military installation, and the black suit he was wearing changed into that of an NCR Brigadier general. Then he noticed he felt less old;that is, not younger, but less stiff and more energetic.

A young soldier who had to be no older than 18 or 19 ran up to him and said "Sir, we're under attack from the woods in the North and South! We need to get you and the other generals out of the base before we lose it!"

"Fine, let's get to the Armoury first. You're on point, son." Caine responded, pulling out a black Desert Eagle.

The soldier, who he guessed was his Duty Officer, led him to the base's armoury. Caine switched out of his uniform and into a set of elite riot armour and put on VICE's 'home' helmet, then put his uniform at the bottom of a backpack, then stuffed it with ammo and what medical supplies he could find. Then he picked up what he guessed was his specially modified FAL and slung the pack on his back. He picked up most of the rest of the guns and ammo and stuffed it into 2 duffel bags, one which he slung over his shoulder, the other he gave to the duty officer, and finally, he stuffed all the rest of the ammo, guns and medical supplies into a second backpack, which he again gave to the duty officer, who quickly put both on.

The duty officer groaned slightly before stifling it, then smirked and asked "What'd you put into this, sir? Bricks?"

"Meds, Guns and ammo. I will not lose this base! I want you to get those bags to the southern front, I can handle myself and they're gonna want the meds." Caine said.

Just as he said that, a loudspeaker projected "Outer Perimeter has been breached, all units on red alert, report to your posts! This is not a Drill! General Caine to the Ward Room, All units on red alert, report to you posts! This is not a Drill!"

Hearing that, Caine bolted for the ward room, following the markings that were painted on the walls. Against his wishes, the duty officer bolted after him, having issues keeping pace with the general, who was at least double his age. As he got closer to the outer walls, he could hear the sounds of combat clearly, and wanted to assist, but thought they might be better served if he worked with whoever was in the ward. He slowed as he approached the door, and bringing his rifle to a low carry he opened the door with his left hand. In the room stood three other generals around a holographic battle map, although it had none of the telltale red enemy markers. One of them was Lee Oliver, the commander of NCR forces in the Mojave in the prime universe, the second was Tanner, and the third was one he didn't recognize.  
>"Shouldn't we be actually commanding the troops, or at least leaving!" Caine exclaimed, expecting them to be in combat gear and waiting for him to arrive so they could coordinate. Instead, they were in their dress greens with no weapons at all.<p>

Tanner said "Duty Officer, you are dismissed."

The young man stammered, but replied "But, what about ... Yes, ma'am." and then stepped out into the hallway and closed the door.

"No Caine, we shouldn't be leaving. If you don't remember, Kimball wants the base held." Oliver stated, flatly.

"Then why the hell are we in the ward room with outdated and unreliable holographic maps? Why aren't we taking the fight to the enemy?" Caine growled angrily.

The unknown general said, "We _are_ commanding. It won't do us any good to go out there and get injured or worse. We'll lead from here."

"VICE, connect to the base's systems. I want everything you can give me. _We_ are commanding, from the front." Caine said, moving towards the door.

"You step out that door; you've resigned your commission! I'll have you mopping floors for the rest of your career." Oliver barked.

"Fine then! I won't sit idly by while our boys get killed because their COs were to afraid to fight. I won't let those men die out there while you hide in here, Lee. If I save even one of those men, I'll be _happy_ to sweep and mop, because I saved that man's life." Caine returned decisively, opening the door.

"Duty officer, arrest General Caine for Dereliction of Duty!" Oliver screamed out.

The young man stepped out in front of Caine and brought his rifle to a high carry, then said, "First Lieutenant Armstrong reporting for duty, Sir. What are your orders, General Caine?" said the duty officer.

Caine smirked then, while still looking at Armstrong, said "Seems to me you need to learn a few things about the burden, and the art, of command, ."

Next he spoke to Armstrong "Strip them of their stars, unless they'd like to join me in the burden."

As the lieutenant moved around him, he told VICE to patch him into the base's loudspeakers, and when he heard an affirmative chirp from VICE, said "This is Brigadier General Richard Aradesh Caine, effective immediately I've taken command of the base and relieved the other generals of command. As of this moment, the enemy has lost the battle. Let's go explain it to them, boys! All squad leaders get me a Sit Rep ASAP."

Tanner stepped forward after he finished his speech and asked, "Where do you need me General?"

"Alright, you're reinstated. Get back your stars, get kitted up, and then take command of the southern sector." Caine said proudly, then keyed into squad communications and said, "All troops on the southern half of the base, report to General Tanner, Northern units to me."

Then the unknown general said, "But... what of us? You can't just leave us in here!"

Caine replied "Oh yes I could, but I'm not one to leave someone defenseless." then threw a sidearm to each of them.

Tanner called back "You boys better barricade the door once we leave. Wouldn't want our chickens to fry too early, now would we?"

After that, Caine closed the ward room door behind him and quickly walked to the north wall, following the wall signs. On his way there, he asked VICE "Who are we fighting, anyway? How could anything do this much damage to the base?"

"I have no idea who, but they have access to both missile launchers and laser automatics, and I have reports of possible plasma weaponry." VICE replied.

"Oh goody! Missiles, Lasers and Plasma too!" Caine said sarcastically.

Cheers erupted as the general stepped out into the sun. Quickly and coolly, he climbed to the top of the wall, near the gate house. About 200 yards away sat a trench, which was in turn placed less than 10 yards from a row of albeit leafless trees. The trench contained at least 6 emplacements, the morning sun somewhat obscuring everything else in the trench. For the moment, at least, the trench was silent, no less than 3 dozen combatants were strewn on the ground by the trench, and even on the inside of the wall, and all wore combat armour with a strange blue sash tied around them, which wrapped up and back down their backs, like a very short toga.

"Tanner, I've got nothing over here, anything on your side?" Caine asked.

Through the radio, she responded "No, I've got nothing. That can't be all of them though,can it?"

"No way. I'm sending a runner with a sealed message, I want the container back." Caine said as he scrawled out a note on a piece of paper. Then he pulled out the magazine, with the chamber still closed, wrapped the note around the top cartridge and reseated the magazine. He handed the gun to a ranger in his casual gear and sent him on his , he called in all the squad leaders and spoke to them as a group.

"I'm going to sound the all clear, but I want everyone to stay ready. Pull all the extra troops off the wall, but keep them in the courtyard. Tell your guys, but keep them quiet, give the illusion we've gone back to a standard posture, that we think that we just beat them."

Each of them accepted their orders and moved back to their troops, quietly telling them of the plan. Just as Caine was about to signal the all clear the ranger came running back, carrying the desert eagle in his hand. He presented it to Caine, who popped out the magazine and pulled a new note which read "We're lucky I know you well enough to check here. Ready on your signal."At that, Caine slid the magazine back in and holstered the hand gun, then keyed into the loudspeakers once again.

The Loudspeaker emitted the All Clear tone, and then Caine spoke, "This is General Caine. The base is secure, all units may stand down. Engineering and Med teams report to your assigned sectors."

As he said that the men began to file off of the wall, standing around in their squads once they were off of the wall. Once they all 'left' the wall, Caine himself came off the wall himself, waiting for the enemy to build up their confidence again. They waited there for what felt like days, until the sun started to set, and then Caine had some construction lights that were in storage brought out and prepared but not erected. Luckily, for the defenders, the 'Blue Sashes' decided to attack as the sun was still setting, not after, so it was much easier to erect the lights, and it was easier to fight them as well.

The attack itself started with a volley of missiles directed at the gate, streaking from the western edge of the trench. Caine called out, while connected to only squad communication "Contacts, North side. Anything on the south side?"

"This is the south side; we're taking heavy weapons and heavy small arms fire! We need heavy armour support!" returned Tanner. Just then, the emplacements spun up, throwing up to 1800 laser bolts per second at the gate.

"Alright, I'm authorizing the use of Mechanized Infantry. Hammerhead, you know what to do." Caine said. On that command, four squads rushed off of the wall and into the base, presumably get their heavy weapons gear and the stripped down T-45d armour. The battle raged on, the laser emplacements scorching the gate and walls, small arms rounds crashing into and sometimes ricocheting off the tops of the wall. The troops fired back, but were quickly suppressed by the lasers.

When the lasers stopped firing to protect against overheating Caine and other sharpshooters would get up and take pot shots at the gun crews, eventually disabling two of the guns before the heavy weapons troops arrived. When they did, Caine had the gate opened to allow them to assault the trench, and had the men on the wall give them assisting fire. Surely enough, as the gate opened some of the enemies charged, but slid on their feet and ran away when they saw the heavy weapons troops, whom they thought were actually wearing operational power armour, and not basically glorified plate mail.

The troopers leveled their light machine guns and opened fire, mowing the now retreating troops down and creating even more of mess in front of the trench. The dead bodies eventually rolled into the trench and knocked the guns over, and moved forward to cover the trench as about 60% of the troops on the wall came up to enact revenge on the blue sashes and grab their heavy weapons for the base's walls instead.

Caine's radio squawked "Sir, there are a half dozen of the bastards in here, alive but injured. What do you want to do with them?"

He replied "Get them to med. We might be able to get info out of them."

Immediately after he said that two squads of regular army troops and the heavy weapons guys descended into the trench and came out carrying guns, prisoners and Hammerhead's commander had a roll of detonation cord, which was reeling back into the trench, over his shoulder. Waiting for them to arrive at a safe distance, Caine set to writing down all the events of the last few hours, since he didn't know when he would shift again.

Just as the Heavies got back to the wall, Caine asked "Tanner, north side's clear. We're about to blow the trench. How are your guys doing?"

She responded "We're just mopping up over here. We grabbed one of their commanders, I just sent him over to med."

Then he told her, "Alright, grab their guns then blow the trench, if you aren't already, then meet me in the ward room. We've got a few loose ends that need to be taken care of."

She responded "Copy, give me 15."

Caine wrote down everything he was about to do, called 'Fire in the Hole! Fire in the Hole!', then lit the cord. Then he went to the ward room, prepared to confront Oliver and the other general.

He asked VICE "Who was the third general in the room? I know there were Tanner and Oliver, but I can't remember the third."

VICE replied "Brigadier General Allenson. I don't like him; he's too moody to be a good commander in my opinion."

"Right, let's get them out of there. They'll be excited to hear that we won despite their cowardice, and that we have some new guests." Caine said, pleased, then he added "Also, I have something of an odd request. If I go through the door and seem confused, explain to me what's happened over the last few hours, and tell me about the notes I've written."

VICE, slightly confused, answered "Alright, I'll do that for you, but you'll have to explain later."

Caine responded to him "If you have to explain, then I won't be able to explain why I've asked this of you."

Then he knocked on the still shut door of the ward room loudly and said "Allenson, Oliver! Open up, we've beaten them!"

From behind the door, Allenson replied "How do we know that you haven't been captured and are being forced to say that!"

Caine replied "I'll give you ten seconds to think about that question."

Behind the door was some unintelligible chatter and some foot steps, then Oliver called out "Fine, you wouldn't get captured. Give me a second to move all this stuff." followed buy some shuffling and the sound of metal dragging along stone and then the door swung open. Caine stepped through and, like before, everything began to shift and blur, first his surroundings and then his clothes, everything except his body and the desert eagle changed. The ward room changed into some kind of office, similar to ones he had seen in police stations back home, and his armour changed into what he guessed was a police officer's uniform. As everything stopped shifting he noticed another officer sitting at a desk, reading a file.

The officer said "Ah, CSI Caine. Sit down."

On the desk he noticed a plaque which said 'Captain Allen Steele, NYPD' and a calendar on his desk noted the month of March, 2064.

Caine was still processing this information when, luckily, a secretary ran in and said "Sir, Officers Tanner and Vice say that they've found a body with holes burned clean through it!"

The captain replied "Miss Cunningham, I told you not to disturb me. Get back to work or you're fired!"

Miss Cunningham replied "I'm sorry sir, but they said it was urgent. They said that the holes were easily 2 or 3 inches wide without any blood. They said it was like he got hit with some sort of laser gun!"

"Secretaries aren't a hard thing to find, so get out of my office with your crazy stories now, Cunningham!" the captain screamed.

She hurried out of the office and back to her desk, closing the door on her way out.

"Sir, I know this sounds crazy, but what if she isn't lying?" Caine asked.

"Oh god, not you too. Laser guns? What is this, 2086?" the Captain asked sardonically.

"No no no, I'm not saying that. But in every story there's a grain of truth, right? So what if Cunningham, or maybe Tanner, is embellishing?" Caine asked.

"Fine, go check it out. I was going to congratulate you on the Foster case. That was a tough nut to crack. If you solve this one to, I might just be forced to promote you. That is, if this _really _has to do with laser weapons _and _the feds don't make you disappear." The captain said.

Caine stood up and left the office, and walked down a set of stairs with an exit sign over them. As he reached the bottom, and a hallway which led to the exit doors, another cop who had been leaning on the wall asked, "I know that look. What do we got?"

"Gotta go and meet up with Tanner and Vice. They had something about possible laser weapons." Caine responded, continuing down the hall.

"Lasers, eh? And I thought today was gonna be a boring day. Let's saddle up, partner." the other cop said, chuckling.

"I wish, but nope, always something fun and interesting to do around here!" Caine said, opening the door. His apparent partner then slid around him, towards a black and white highwayman.

As he stepped out into the sun, Caine said "Hey, I'll drive. You figure out where they are."

"Fine, just don't crash into anything again." the partner said.

"Just make the call. If we take to long, the cap'll be pissed, and he'll direct that at me." Caine replied.

"13-Adam calling dispatch, I need the call sign for officers Vice and Tanner, over." The partner said into a dashboard mounted radio.

Almost instantly, the radio squawked, "13-Adam, Dispatch... One moment please... Officers Tanner and Vice are Car 11-King. Over."

He replied "Thanks Dispatch. Out" then turned a dial and followed up with "Car 13-Adam calling 11-King. 11-King, please relay your position."

Someone who sounded exactly like VICE, but without the metallic quality his voice usually carried, replied "13-Adam, 11-King. We're on West 87th, near that Jap restaurant that Davies had his party at back in '59. Over."

Caine's partner replied "Really, that place closed down? They had the best teriyaki! Cap's sent us over there. Over"

Vice responded "See you soon Tom. Out"  
>After the conversation, Tom guided Caine to the restaurant. As soon as they arrived, Caine was sure that it was, in fact, laser fire that had killed the victim. Caine initially assumed that the shooter had been unskilled, for six bolts hit the wall from the direction of a dumpster not 5 feet away, and only two of them had hit the victim, but realised that there were five holes in the wall of the dumpster itself, meaning they were fired from inside the dumpster. Inspecting the corpse, the wounds were fully cauterized; leaving no blood evidence at all, just as would be expected from a close range laser hit on an unarmoured target, and the victim was slumped on his side with his legs folded under him.<p>

"So, what made you think of lasers? It does look like I'd expect from a volley of bolts from close range, but that's not really a normal thing, homicides with lasers." Caine asked Tanner and Vice.

"Well, I watch a bit of Sci-Fi on the TV, and they always show that kind of scorch mark on the hit surfaces." Tanner said.

Vice added, "A friend of mine got hurt in a factory accident a couple months back. One of the cutting lasers put a blast clean through his hand, and it looked similar to this when he showed us."

Caine lied, saying "So you'd know what an injury from a laser would look like better than I."

"Yeah, I guess so. Either way, how do we _prove_ that it was a laser? The only reason the doctors believed my friend's injury was from a laser was because they told him so, they had no way to test if he was lying." Vice replied.

"Yeah, I'm looking at the evidence we have here, and even with his testimony, I still don't believe you Rick." Tom said.

Caine went over to one of the scorch marks and chipped a chunk off of one of the faux columns on the wall, then said "We have them test for crystallization. If there are crystals present, the rock was super-heated, and therefore by the laser. They don't need to know what exactly we're looking for, just crystallization. If it's not there, though, we're back to square one."

Vice said "Alright, I'll deal with the autopsy. Since it's your idea, why don't you go test the rock. Maddy and Tom, I need you guys to inspect the rest of the scene. Anybody have any issues with that?"

Both Tanner and Caine nodded, but Tom complained "Really, Jim? You're going to put me with a woman? We'll never find _anything_."

Both Vice and Caine started "She's a damn good cop and you know it Tom!" but Caine stopped and let Vice say it, as he wasn't sure what he should or shouldn't know.

He just groaned "Humph. Fine, I'll work with her. Just don't expect any results."

Caine sarcastically replied, "With you on the case, I don't!"

To which Tom responded "Very funny, Flyboy. Go work your magic on those rocks."

Caine did just that, he brought the rocks to the forensics lab and set the boys to work analyzing the rocks. Then he went to check that the coroner had gone down to the crime scene or at least sent one of his assistants, and he assumed the morgue being dark meant that the coroner had gone. After that, he went straight back to the crime scene and found out that they hadn't even finished sweeping the scene. The holes in the front of the dumpster had melted metal that had leaked on to the outside of them and began to cool, meaning the laser bolts came from inside the dumpster, but they were still warm to the touch, which meant the shots were fired recently. There was only one mark that didn't match to the dumpster, which Caine assumed was the chest wound, since the leg wound did match to the one of the holes in the dumpster and the wall, meaning the chest wound was probably an execution.

But the shooter didn't leave his AER-9, so there was still no way to prove that it was laser fire that caused the damage, but he could show that a bolt of high thermal energy did hit the wall if there was in fact crystallization on the shards of rock he took, but that was circumstantial at best. They kept searching, and eventually swept the scene twice, but found no other clues to point to the laser rifle.

"So, he didn't leave the gun, and it wouldn't leave any casings. Not to mention we just went over the scene twice. I don't know how we can prove the theory, but at least we know that this wasn't premeditated." Vice said, dejectedly.

"Wait, how do we know it wasn't premeditated?" Tom asked.

Caine replied, "Well, it looks like he tried to shoot his way out of a _dumpster_, then he executed this guy 'cause he was a witness. That doesn't scream premeditation to me."

Tanner replied, "Exactly what I was thinking. Look, we still have the chunks from the wall at the lab, and the Coroner is working with the body. Dispatch will let us know when there finish the tests or the autopsy. We should start looking for witnesses."

"Yeah, if the perp had a gun like you're saying he does then he's probably military. If he is, he'll probably have his Battle Dress on, which will help us look for him." Vice said.

"Ask people if they saw a guy wearing armour and a blue sash or toga." Caine said.

Tom, Vice and Tanner gave him an odd look, then Tom asked "Why? Is this another one of your weird hunches?"

He replied "Yeah, we'll call it that. Just ask, and if we do find people who saw it, we can figure out where he went and what his next move is, then catch them."

Vice elected to go check up with the lab and coroner, and do a little research about laser injuries. Over the next three hours, Caine, Tanner and Tom spread out around the area, eventually finding a few people who saw the perp go into a department store. Speaking to the clerk, they found out he had tried to pay with first bottle caps, then gave him a gold coin, that the clerk thought looked Romanesque. The man had bought a black suit and a briefcase, into which he put what the clerk was a computer part, then the man had said something about 'getting General Caine', and walked out, towards the thanked the clerk for his time and rushed out of the store with his hand on his gun, Tanner and Tom chasing after him.

Tom called out to him "Rick, wait up! The guy said 'General Caine' and you pretty much freaked out. Why?"

Caine replied, "Because _I'm_ General Caine, Tom. I'm guessing that you've noticed I don't seem like Rick, and I can explain what I think is going on, but I need you to promise to tell no one, not even your mother, and especially not me after I explain."

Tom replied, "Yeah... yeah, sure Rick. You can count on me."

Tanner also replied "I won't tell anybody either."

After that affirmation, Caine began to explain everything that had happened over the last day and a half, what both Tanner and Vice were in the other times or realities he had visited, why he believed their laser weapons theory, and why he was blending in as well as he was with the massive culture shock he faced. When he finished his explanation, Tanner was leaning on a wall and looked green with worry, and Tom was standing there with his mouth agape, just dumbstruck.

Tanner spoke worriedly "I...I've been having dreams over the last few nights. Or... at least what I thought were dreams. I wouldn't see the changes, but my guess is that I was traveling too. I dreamt I was there when you took the base from Oliver. I was the secretary of state of the UAR, and... A few others as well. I remember being there, doing those things, but I couldn't have, I'm here!"

"But, what I'm guessing is that your body doesn't move, just your consciousness. I'm only physically moving because of another event that happened to me, and trapped me in an entirely separate universe from my own. _You_ are physically here both physically and... Spiritually, I guess. You might not even be in control of your own actions right now, you might just be along for the ride, and your mind is accepting your body's action as your own. Now that you remember and understand, all of the Madison Tanners might remember each others experiences during the shifting, or it might be that you all forget these 'dreams'. You'll only know when the version of me that belongs here returns to this universe, and everybody returns to their correct bodies. If you keep having the dreams, that means my first theory is right, if not, you'll probably forget about them." Caine said, trying to explain his theory as simply as possible.

"So... You had no idea who I was, or who Vice was?" Tom asked.

"No, I still don't even know your last name, or this Vice's first. Back in my universe, I was trained to be able to blend in to any situation quickly, since going undercover is part of the job. Needless to say, this has me at the edge of my skills and my wit right now. I had you guide me here because I've never been in New York, and it would look vastly different if I did visit it." Caine said.

"Well, are you going to tell Vice, Caine? Shouldn't he know?" Tanner asked.

"If he's had the dreams, then yes. It could break his mind or his programming when he's an AI, if we don't. But, If he hasn't had the dreams, then we could break all of Space-Time, since the three of us are thoroughly involved in the future of at least a few of these universes. And the same goes for you, Tom. If I don't see you, I'm sorry." Caine explained.

"Why... why is that?" Tom asked.

"Because, if this thing works like I think it does, your mind would start looking for other versions of you. Eventually, either your mind will splinter and you'll become irreversibly comatose, or your mind will begin creating other personalities and you'll become either bipolar or schizophrenic." Caine said sadly.

"Then why the hell did you involve me in this?" Tom asked angrily.

"Because you're the only person who'd believe me and probably _not_ shift. I don't know if the real me, and maybe even the real her and Vice if they shifted, will remember what happened. I need you to make up a story if we don't remember something to tell to the captain as well. Not to mention, if we don't ever remember what happened today, then you hopefully won't have to deal with mental instability."Caine asked.

Tom went to Rick's car and pulled out a flask and took a swig, then offered it to either of them. Tanner refused, but Caine took a swig then put it back in the car.

"So, let's go catch us a Blue Cape!" Tanner said, and then rushed off towards the docks. Caine and Tom rushed off after her, but not before Caine left a message for Vice with dispatch.

Tom called out "Maddy, wait! How the hell are we gonna find this guy? He's got nothing that really stands out anymore."

Caine answered "If I could get the right parts, I could build a fake version of the armor."

Tanner asked "So, Bait & Grab?"

"Yeah, but it's really complex, it's not just the Generals uniform, they only saw me in my armour, as far as I can remember." Caine replied.

"I don't normally tell people this, but my brother owns a great costuming shop. He's done some really complex stuff for me, so if you just explain what the armour looks like, he can probably do it." Tom said.

"Alright, let's do it. The only thing I don't think your brother can do is the SWAT armour that it's based on." Caine said.

"I can get that from the armory." Tanner said

"OK, now we're in business. Let's get to work." Caine said.

Tom and Caine went towards the costuming shop and Tanner went back towards the crime scene and the cars. Tom and Caine got to Tom's brother's shop fairly quickly and after a little coercion Caine explained the armour and got to work on it. The additions that Caine knew were needed for the helmet proved difficult to make, so it took a while, but the clothes and duster were just sitting on a rack. After a couple hours of waiting, the additions were done, but tom's brother would need the gear itself to add them to. Caine had Tom stay there while he went to find Tanner. Just as he got back to the crime scene Tanner drove up with the armour next to her, and opened the passenger side door.

Caine got into the car and asked "What took you so long?"

She replied "The armory guy doesn't like me. I had to go to the cap to get the armor, and you know how he his. Or... forget that, you don't."

"Not really, although he does seem to have a temper." Caine replied.

"Hey, I distinctly remember shoulder guards on your armour; Don't forget about those or he might catch on." Tanner said.

"Thanks, I did almost forget about them. We don't want him to catch on to our little scheme, do we?" Caine replied, and then explained the shoulder guards to Tom's brother.

As soon as he finished, Tanner started to explain all of the battle damage that the armour had sustained, when she saw it, to the costumer, and he wrote down all of the necessary modifications that he would need to make. Another hour later, he had finished with guards, which were fairly simple, and all of the battle damage she had described. Caine strapped all the armour on, which fit awkwardly because it was fake, then Tom paid the man in what Caine considered pre-war bills, even though they would be the correct currency for the time period.

Caine left and took all side-streets and alleyways to the docks, instead of the main roads, half to bait the killer and half because he was getting more that a few strange looks from people on the streets, and they were making him uncomfortable. His wish to bait the target came true just as he wandered about a block away from the docks. From behind him he heard a man jump to the ground, specifically a briefcase hit the ground then feet. Caine spun while drawing his handgun, keeping it aimed for center of mass.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, General. Confused and sloppy. Never would have expected that." the assassin said.

"Oh, but I am neither unprepared nor confused. You have made quite a mess, though; very uncharacteristic of an assassin sent to kill a high ranking officer. You, sir, have just lost both your credibility and failed your contract." Caine said, seeing Tanner and Tom over the assassin's shoulders.

Tom called out "Weapon on the ground, Scumbag! Then hands in the air, where I can see them!"

"Damn you, you Imperialist Bastard!" yelled the assassin, raising his AER-9. Caine responded by putting a bullet into the focusing lens of the rifle, rendering it inoperable. The assassin, knowing he had lost, pulled a knife and leaped at the 'General', taking rounds in the front and back and being deflected from the shooters on the other side.

"Dumb bastard. I wonder what he meant when he called you an imperialist bastard, though." Tom wondered, checking the assassin for documents.

Caine broke open the laser rifle's case and destroyed any sensitive components, which the world shouldn't yet have, then picked them up and started moving towards the docks, saying "I'd rather not tell you the future, It's not very encouraging. Pick up the body. We've got to get rid of these. The world shouldn't have this rifle for another ten or fifteen years, and he doesn't exist for roughly another two centuries." Then he threw the rifle off the pier, which was accompanied by a large splash that had to come from the body.

"Why can't you tell me?" Tom asked.

"World ending paradoxes may ensue. Or maybe it's just that I don't like giving out spoilers, pick one. Either way, you don't want to know. Just figure out something to tell the Cap." Caine replied.

"I'll just tell him that the ruse we were working on didn't work." Tom said, then added, "At worst, the Cap'll get interested in the case and a manhunt will ensue, then if they find the body I'll say that we did take a few shots at the guy and they must have done enough damage to kill him after the fact. But, why can't you tell him that?"

"I don't think I'll get that far. I've completed the task, so I'm guessing that the next door I go through will probably shift me to another universe. " Caine said, beginning to loosen the fake armour. When they got back to the car he threw the costume into the trunk and put his uniform back on, then he gave the armour to Tom and opened the driver's side door. As he slid into the seat the telltale blur started, and the uniform started to shift back to his actual armour, the car and the surroundings returning to the wasteland he was used to. The only thing that didn't shimmer, other than his body, was again the Desert Eagle, meaning he was going to keep it.

_This turned into a really crazy chapter that originally sprung from an idea that a friend of mine had. If you're confused about what happened, you're pretty much in the same boat as Caine. If not, lucky you!_

_Originally, the third "Act" of this chapter was going to happen in the early 1950s, then I changed it to tie in with what happened during chapter 2, so if it seems like a piece of tech that should be there is missing, I blame it on that and the different technological development in the fallout universe. See the differences __here._

_Also, there are references to a lot of different games and movies, but not enough to merit the story a cross-over, in my opinion. I've got references to L.A. Noire, the new Star Trek, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and many, many more. Enjoy trying to find them all._

_I honestly couldn't name all of the different pages that have to do with this chapter or the notes would be almost as long as the story, so if anyone is confused about anything at all, go __here._


	10. Confusion

Everything except his surroundings solidified, they just kept pulling to the rear of the car. Caine was worried by the movement, and the large shimmering area right over his lap, but also by what could have occurred to cause the world to be put into a state of seemingly constant flux. Resigned to attempting to get used to this world, he closed his eyes and a new weight materialised on his lap. As he opened them, he realised the new weight was in fact Tanner, hunched over and sleeping on his armoured and again injured chest. After she appeared, he realised that the world was not in a state of flux still, and that the cause of the movement was his foot, on the still depressed accelerator. He moved his foot off of it and let the car coast to a stop, trying to survey his surroundings and figure out what exactly had occurred in this universe to get him here. He remembered the phase shifts clearly, but couldn't get more than a vague dream when trying to remember the events in the current universe. He remembered both the doctor and Lucas trying to stop him; Simms on the ground, bloodied; and the pain in his side. But he couldn't remember anywhere near enough to piece anything together.

"VICE, can you recall what happened?" Caine said, wincing from the pain that speaking, especially with Tanner atop him, was causing.

"I... I don't know. I must've wandered, I have no recordings, no ... memories, of what happened. I remember being in the helmet with you as a General just after you had debriefed two generals after some attack; That I had a body, a human body, and was a detective with the NYPD; and that I was a piece of obsolete tech, being ridiculed and mocked by my more advanced brethren in a recycling center while waiting to be scrapped. There were flying cars; colonies on Luna, Mars, even Neptune; I remember all of that, but I can't remember what happened here." VICE replied.

"Same boat here; Ask her." Caine said, trying to limit his speaking, and therefore his pain, to a minimum.

"Ms. Tanner, wake up. I have a question for you." VICE said, rather loudly.

"Huh, what... what's going on? Where are we and why am I... oh god." Tanner replied,realising what could have happened.

"Don't worry, I'd remember if we did." Caine groaned, trying to calm her down.

"Well, alright; I would've rocked your world if we had, especially like that." Tanner replied with a chuckle, then slipped off of him and into the passenger seat.

"Anyhow, that answers my question. None of us remember much of what happened and I don't even know what maps I should be using to get us... anywhere, really. I have no records of where we were during the... confusion. I do have a map of the area, but there aren't any landmarks to tell me where we are." VICE admitted, disappointed.

"So, you have no idea where we are?" Tanner asked groggily, and slightly angrily.

"No, I don't. Do you have any idea what happened since Megaton that night?" VICE asked, expecting that Caine would ask the same if not for his current issue.

"Caine and I got insanely drunk.I have the hangover to prove that. I remember being carried somewhere, then getting out and puking all over the road. It was mostly beer, but I think there's some food in there. But that's all I remember, and it seems more like a dream than the other stuff, even though it was what really happened. I remember my dreams better than real life; I can remember being a general, an admiral in some navy, a housewife and even being a whore, but I can't remember last night." Tanner said, trying hard to remember every detail and getting angry at how little she could actually recall.

"Oh... okay then. Uh, if you see anything that could be a landmark, let me know. I should be able to..." VICE said, drifting off before excitedly adding "Wait, I found something! Point the helmet at the dash and I'll put it up!"

Just as he said that, a light sprouted from the helmet and began rendering a holographic image, which soon turned into a video. Just as it started, Caine's voice came from inside the helmet, even though he wasn't wearing it, and definitely wasn't moving his lips.

"VICE, med scan me. Tell her what you need." Caine's voice blurted out from the helmet, seemingly in pain.

VICE replied "I'm going to need the scanner attached to the medical liner. Once you've found it, plug it into the jack on the helmet."

Tanner's voice now emitted from the helmet, asking "What am I looking for VICE?"

VICE replied "Its a cord, which should be on the outside of the left shoulder on his armour. If it's not, you'll have to detach the shoulder pad so you can reach it. Then, hold him down, This is going to _hurt_."

In the video, Tanner leaned over Caine and looked for the cord, then released the clips on the front of his shoulder pad and flipped it up, like the lid of a foot locker. Then she reached down under his armour and pulled out the wire she was looking for and plugged it into the helmet just as VICE made an electronic beep.

Then she rolled onto Caine's lap, sitting on his legs and putting her hands on the front of his armour and asked "Ready?"

Caine pulled what looked like a bone wrapped in leather out of a vest pocket and bit down on it, then nodded. Just then he tensed up and howled through the gag, making tanner flinch, but she kept holding him down, even as he involuntarily tried to push forward, to try and get away from the pain. Soon, the liner loosened up, or Caine got used to the pain, because he sat all the way back.

From the helmet came Tanner's voice again, asking "Caine, are you alright? Caine?"

VICE responded, "He's alive, just unconscious. He broke about half of his ribs and cracked the other ones. From the way they've broken, it seems as though they were overstressed after being cracked, probably due to lifting or carrying something."

Tanner asked "OK. Can I move now?"

VICE responded "No. If he wakes again, he might try to move, and you need to be there to stop him from injuring himself."

Tanner sighed, then asked " Well, can you make the seats lay down, so I can tie him up? It seems like this bucket of bolts can do everything else." Apparently uncomfortable with the whole situation, although from the recording's angle it seemed the steering wheel was pressing into the small of her back.

"Sorry, you're just going to have to find a way to make that comfortable." VICE replied.

"I just hope that whomever shifts into these bodies next doesn't assume what first comes to mind with this position. That could be very awkward." Tanner said, worriedly.

VICE replied, "I'll make a copy of my point of view and save it to the helmet, completely separate from my program. Hopefully the next me isn't stupid."

At that, the hologram shimmered, then faded and the sound stopped.

Tanner said "OK, good. We didn't do... that", but then quickly added "No offense."

Caine gripped the steering wheel so tightly his hands began to turn white, then painfully said "Good. Get off."

Tanner, picking up how much pain she was causing him, said "Sorry, give me a second." then rolled into the passenger seat just after he released his right hand's grip on the wheel, allowing her to pass. She wasn't sure why, but she was less embarrassed about the assumption that she had made, and more that she had caused him so much pain and felt helpless to stop it.

Caine then groaned, through gritted teeth "Left. Med-X. Now."

Tanner, not understanding what he meant, asked "What about Med-X?"

VICE replied "In the driver's side foot locker, there's a cigarette case. In that case are some syringes of Med-X. My guess is that he's asking for one of those."

Tanner answered "Fine, give me a sec." then opened her door and rolled her legs out of the car. When she attempted to stand, though, she almost collapsed out of the vehicle as pain shot up her entire right side, originating in her foot. She shifted her weight to her left side, and used her arms to take the rest of the weight, but she now felt constant throbbing in the foot.

"I... I think I broke my right foot at one point. Probably why I puked on the road and not off to the side." Tanner groaned, shimmying towards the rear of the car.

She slowly made her way around the car and arrived at the driver's side rear door, and then realised that she would have to use one hand to open the door. She used her left hand to open the door and slid into the back trying to keep her foot as stable as possible. Once she was in, she opened the locker and began searching for the cigarette case and something to wrap her foot with. The contents of the footlocker were very disorganised, seemingly just thrown into it when they were acquired. Eventually, she found the cigarette case and an old ACE bandage, and only then did she realise that she wasn't wearing any footwear, only a pair of black socks that she had bought back in Tenpenny.

"Hey, why... why aren't I wearing any shoes.?" She asked, dumbfounded.

"Don't know, aren't up here." Caine replied, pained and impatient.

"Oh crap, sorry." Tanner replied, popping open the cigarette case. Inside, ten syringes of Med-X sat where cigarettes were designed to, and at one time had, gone. She pulled one of them out, and slightly depressed the plunger to make sure there was no air inside it, then she injected it into his arm. As soon as it hit his blood-stream, his whole body seemed to loosen, the pain beginning to subside. Then she decided to wrap her foot with the bandage, then pain becoming more manageable due to the fact the foot now had support. Although she wanted complete pain relief, she decided against the use of another syringe of med-x on herself, since one person had to be aware.

Tanner said "VICE, just drive along the road. We should find something to use as a landmark. Maybe a highway sign, at least."

VICE took control of the car, driving in what they were assuming was a northerly direction. Eventually, after what seemed like hours to Tanner, who was still laying on the floor in the rear of the cabin, VICE spoke again.

He asked "I have good news and bad, which do you want first?"

Tanner said good, but Caine said bad, then Tanner chose to agree with him, since she'd hear the good anyway.

VICE responded "The bad news first, then. We won't have enough fuel to get back to the capital. The good news is, I've figured out where we are."

Caine asked, dreamily "Where, then?"

VICE replied "We're on the I-68, about 20 miles from Cumberland, West Virginia. We're closer to Pittsburgh than the Capital, but I don't think we'll be able to make it all the way there with what little fuel we have."

Tanner asked, "Is there any way to make the car more efficient? Maybe that will leave us enough fuel to get back."

VICE replied, "No, I've been attempting to do that. I can't find a way to do it without causing catastrophic damage to the engine in the long run."

Caine asked, "Distances?"

"Pittsburgh is roughly 115 miles, DC is roughly 145." VICE replied, concisely.

"Wait. What about Cumberland?" Caine asked.

Tanner responded "No, Cumberland's a ruin. Even the scavengers want nothing to do with it, it's so bad."

"Fine, no good. Pittsburgh?" Caine asked, slightly worriedly.

Tanner replied "The Pitt really isn't a safe place to be anymore. Everyone I've heard of trying to go there has disappeared, except for the Lone Wanderer. I've heard third hand that there was a big battle either inside or for control of the city, and that the mills might be running, but I don't have any idea what we'll find when and if we get there."

VICE said "Well, we don't have much choice. Morgantown, the only other city within range that might still be intact, is 80 miles away. Both DC and Pittsburgh are 110 plus, to far away without a refuel. And if people have disappeared in Pittsburgh, that means that people are there to make them disappear."

"Would you need to mess with the engine's efficiency?" Caine asked, the Med-X stopping much of his pain.

"Probably not, although we'd be close to empty." VICE replied.

"Then go there. We'll be able to get back to the wasteland faster once we get refueled." Caine said.

Tanner asked "Why go back, why not explore the rest of the country?"

Caine replied "Remember the Brits? I want that to be the future, and it's got to start somewhere."

Once he found a turn off to get them to Morgantown, VICE turned the car in a wide arc, not even using the brakes, though making sure to keep the car on the road. They spent another hour and three quarters on the road and moving through Allentown. Much of the highway itself was in great shape, seemingly untouched by the passage of time and then nukes that hit everywhere else. Like the capital, though, the roads lost a good deal of quality as they neared the city proper, but unlike the capital, erected around the city was a huge, thick concrete wall, with gates at each of its entrances. The walls reminded caine of the ones that surrounded New Vegas, just much thicker, sturdier, and taller. Also different than the New Vegas walls was the fact that this wall had guard towers every 300 feet, with powerful looking laser turrets in them. On the gates once was painted a greeting, which had once said 'Welcome to Morgantown', but had been scoured by time and recently repainted to just say 'Welcome to Morgan'. The guns for the gate they were currently approaching armed and locked onto the car, tracking it as it came closer and closer to the gate.

Caine said "Uh... VICE? Can you do something about those?"

"I'm transmitting the LA access codes now, the guns should recognise the car as a Police Vehicle, but I don't know if the gates will be opened or not." VICE replied.

Over the radio came a new voice, an older sounding man asking "What do you want? The guns are seeing you as cops, but there aren't any of them anymore."

VICE replied "I found this code at a police station out west. I've got two injured people here, in need of medical attention. Are you going to let us in or are we going to have to run out of gas somewhere near Pittsburgh?"

"Yeah, I'll let you in. But don't you try anything funny, I can override the guns." said the man on the radio.

The giant steel and concrete gates began to slide open, grinding on the old and underused tracks used to move them. The car got to the gate just as there was a space big enough for it, and slid through with just a few inches on either side. Just as the car slid through, the gate began to close behind them. People came out of buildings to see the visitors, and a stocky, bald, greasy man in a scientist's or doctor's coat waddled over to the car with two similarly dressed people behind him. One was a tall, muscular black man, and the other a shorter brunette woman, who was very good looking by wasteland standards and Caine thought would probably be considered pretty good looking before the war.

The greasy man addressed Caine "Who are the injured and how? There are only two of you here."

Caine replied "Both of us."

Then Tanner added "Broken foot for me, he's broken some ribs and cracked the others."

The stocky man commanded "Dick, Ash, help them get inside the clinic, start to work on them."

As soon as he finished speaking, the woman, Caine assumed that she was 'Ash', helped Madison to her feet and the man, whom he assumed was "Dick", tried to help him to his feet. All he ended up doing was almost pulling Caine's arm out of it's socket, but the gesture itself was nice, and Caine pulled himself to his feet and leaned most of his weight onto the strong-looking man. Before he got fully out of the car, though, he reached around and turned his hand like he was pulling a key out of the ignition, even though he didn't have a key, and VICE shut the engine down in tune with his hand movement.

"Ash" brought Madison to a reclining chair, not unlike the one's Caine had seen inside ruined dentists offices, and sat her down. When she did, she adjusted the chair to get all of her weight off of her feet, then she started to unwrap the bandage around her foot. Caine and "Dick" went into a room which was labeled "Exam Room 1", and the other man began to pull the layers of clothing off of Caine. While this was happening, Caine felt the familiar pain surge again, signalling that the Med-X was wearing off. Eventually, Caine was down to the Medical Liner for the armour, which was still stretched tightly over him, making it look like his skin was naturally a gunmetal grey instead of the normal range of hues, only the much looser neck line showing that the Liner was, in fact, another layer of clothing. "Dick" picked up a pair of clothing shears, ready to cut away the layer, when Caine put his hand on top of the shears and nodded against cutting the clothing.

Dick was about to ask why he shouldn't cut it when Madison, able to see into the exam room, explained "In his gear is an old riot gear helmet. If you plug the cord that's coming from his left shoulder into it, then the liner can be released and should come off easily."

Dick, in a much more effeminate tone than either Caine or Madison expected, replied "OK hon, I'll give it a shot." then started looking for the cable. Once he found it, he had almost no trouble figuring out what to plug it into, then asked Caine "What do I do to release the liner?"

VICE responded "Do you want me to release the liner, Caine? You'll need to provide your overly long authorization code."

The man jumped back from the table and the helmet, looking around for the owner of the mysterious voice.

Caine, on the other hand, groaned and very quickly said "Yes, Vice. Authorization Niner, One, Seven... Bravo, Delta, Delta, Foxtrot, Thr... Three, Four, Seven, Eight, Six, Whiskey, Whiskey, Foxtrot," then gave a particularly desperate groan of pain, and continued "One, Three, Five, Two, Six, Romeo, Echo, Lock."

Then he grabbed the gag out of the coat and bit down on it, in on the edge of blacking out as the liner decompressed his ribs. As soon as it finished, Dick injected him with a syringe of Med-X, and he let his jaw loosen as he felt the pain dull. Caine paid less attention to anything now, just trying to get his nerves and the pain back in control, but he felt like Dick was staring at him as he removed the liner, especially at his stomach and abs, but only for a few seconds. Then Dick started to unwrap the old gause slowly, as it had apparently been wrapped badly.

"Once you're all better, we can pull those bandages off, get a good look at you." Dick purred suggestively.

"I don't think so. I'll be leaving well before these fully heal, and I'm sure I don't need a nurse to supervise." Caine replied, deadpan.

Dick pouted coyly just as madison hobbled into the room, and so he walked out to give them privacy.

Madison asked "Did, did what I think happened just happen?"

Caine, only a bit less confused than her, responded "Yeah, I think the nurse just tried to hit on me. I'm thinking we should definitely share this room for now."

"You aren't worried about Dick, you just want to get me alone with you." Madison responded.

"No, no. I didn't mean it like that. It'd just be more secure if we stayed together." Caine replied, feigning that he was aghast at what she thought he meant.

Madison put on a grin and purred "I didn't say that was a bad thing." then added "But that Ash character did just try to hit on me. I'll move my stuff in here after they leave, then go get some fuel for the car."

"Fine, just wake me when you get back. Vice will explain what you need for the fuel mix." Caine said dreamily, starting to drift off to sleep.

* * *

><p><em>Med-X, if I haven't already explained what it is, is the Fallout Universe's name for Intravenous Morphine Tartrate. From the Wiki : "Med-X is a potent opiate analgesic that binds to opioid receptors in the brain and central nervous system, reducing the perception of pain as well as the emotional response to pain. In layman's terms, it's a run-of-the-mill pain killer delivered with a hypodermic needle. According to Boxcars, 15 hits of Med-X is more than enough to kill a man."<em>

_Pittsburgh, colloquially known as _The Pitt_ to wasteland dwellers, was under the control of a gang during the events of Fallout 3. Before the player's character arrives, a gang controlled by a man named Ashur takes over the city and, through the use of a huge population of slave laborers, gets the city's industrial district, specifically the metal mills, running again. Then he uses the slave labor to keep the mills running and making him ammunition and other supplies, a la _Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

_Interestingly enough, the Brotherhood of Steel had shown interest in the area before the events of Fallout 3, so far as to send a detachment to clear it in 2255. Star Paladin (now Elder) Lyons of the Brotherhood of Steel led the Scourge, a large-scale military action that wiped out nearly the entire population of The Pitt. In a single night, the Brotherhood swept through the city, eliminating any resident who put up a fight. Although the intent of the Scourge remains unclear, several unmutated children were taken from The Pitt by the Brotherhood and placed into initiate training. The motivations for the Scourge are unclear to this day, but many in the Brotherhood note that it was a marked change in the way the Brotherhood operates. Additionally, it is known that something was recovered from The Pitt during the Scourge, although to date it would seem that only Elder Lyons knows what it was._

_The wiki also seems to theorize that Ashur is, or was, in fact a Brotherhood of Steel Paladin who stayed in the city after the scourge, and that the raiders joined up with him after the scourge, then they captured the slaves and created the self-sustaining community of __the _Pitt.


	11. On the Road Again

_The song that Caine sings later in the chapter is used under permission from Hotpoint, the author of "New California Dreaming", the story from which this one is inspired, and is sung by Coyle in Chapter 19 of that story._

_Also, this chapter does contain some harshly worded comments, that are homophobic. It's a character flaw that Madison has, and Caine helps to fix it, but it's still in there. The scene was written by one of my tandem writers, who thought that all of the characters should have some fatal flaw, but I felt guilty telling him he could write the story with me and then never actually get anything into it, so I've cleaned the scene he wrote up a fair bit, but I want to apologize to anyone who is offended by the wording._

* * *

><p>"Richard, wake up! Wake up!" Madison screeched, fearfully.<p>

Caine opened his eyes to a sight to behold. Madison, wearing only her undergarments and his duster, was shooting out of the window with his Desert Eagle, and had put the FAL on his chest, with her rifle on the floor, empty.

Caine asked "What the hell's going on!", rolling off of the bed with FAL in hand.

Madison was breathing heavily, and replied through the breaths, "They attacked me! They tore off my clothes and one of the bastards tried to bite me! Luckily it didn't break the skin, but still!"

"Were you able to get fuel?" Caine asked, the IV Med-X apparently still working.

"Yeah, they had no use for a gas station, so it still had more than enough fuel. The whiskey wasn't hard to find, either. I'm not positive if I got the mix perfect, though." Madison said as she was sliding a new magazine into the Desert Eagle.

"Conserve that ammo, 45 acp isn't easy to find out here. Actually, you take the FAL, give me the handgun." Caine said, holding his prized rifle out to her.

"Really? You want me to use it? You're usually so defensive about it." Madison asked, astounded.

"I jealously guard my guns, but I'm not stupid. My ribs mean I'm in no position to shoulder a rifle, unlike you. Just don't break it, or you'll go back to just being a dumb wastelander." Caine replied seriously.

Madison grabbed the rifle and passed him the Desert Eagle, then began to fire into the now thinning crowd, a 7.62 NATO quickly followed up by a .308, slamming into and through the front line of the mob, wounding two or three of the cannibals. In very short order, the crowd began to retreat back into the buildings, hiding from the hail of bullets.

"Hey, I don't have much of that left, so stop wasting it!" Caine yelled angrily.

"Sorry. We're clear anyway. Let's get the hell out of here before they grow some more _cojones_. VICE, can you start up the car, get it all ready for a quick exit." Madison said forcefully.

Caine pulled the med-liner back on and fastened the hook and loop connections again, then threw her the shirt he had been wearing when they arrived. Then he put all of the armoured plates that he could get to tighten enough on, making sure he didn't tighten the carrier vest too much, then connected the remainder of the plates to the duster after madison put on the shirt and the duster again.

"Good thing you wear much bigger shirts than me, it's almost like a really short dress right now." Madison said.

Just as Caine finished connecting the pauldrons together he saw Ash bolt across the street and try to open the door. He picked up the Desert Eagle, motioned Madison to the back of the room, where she could shoot out the window or, if need be, into the doorway.

"Please, let me in! I'm not one of them; I don't have enough blood to feed them all!" Ash exclaimed fearfully.

Caine pulled the desk out of the way and called back "If you're lying, Madison's got the rifle!" then he pulled the door open and let her run inside before slamming the door shut again, while keeping the Desert Eagle trained on her.

"What do you mean you 'don't have enough blood to feed them all'?" Caine asked forcefully.

"They're vampires! They feed on human blood for food! I've only lived as long as I have because I can't feed them all. I'd be dead long before they'd had their fill." Ash said, more than a bit scared.

"So Dick was coming on to me because he wanted to drink my _blood_?" Caine asked, worriedly.

"Among other things. He's definitely gay, so he probably wanted more than _just_ your blood." Ash said, then turned to Madison and added "and just so you know, my coming on to you was mostly just a ruse. I do like girls, but I originally thought that they were cannibals, and that I could just bluff until you got eaten, then I could escape. Sorry."

Madison replied "Ewww. Also, you were just gonna sit there and let us get eaten, and now you want us to save you?"

"Yeah... wait, what? You care more about that she's a lesbian than that the bitch was just going to let us get eaten while she escaped?" Caine asked, surprised.

"I think you've got your priorities in the wrong order, lady." Ash added, disgustedly.

"First of all, shut up bitch. Second, that's just gross, a girl doing it with another girl. Third, it's not like her pleading really matters; You're gonna bring her along anyway, so the question doesn't matter anyway." Madison replied defensively.

"Look, I don't want to die! I thought that stealing your car and leaving you here was the way to go, but now I realise it's not. I would never have been able to fight them myself, and you can. I'm sorry I thought that, but please let me come with you!" Ash pleaded.

"Why should we? You were gonna leave us to die, you dyke bitch!" Madison growled angrily.

"Whoa, hey. Come on, just go over and watch the window, before you cause another fight. What makes you worth bringing, Ash? Why should I waste my fuel on the extra weight?" Caine asked, decisively.

"I have medical training." Ash replied.

Unsurprised, Caine said "So do I. You must realise, any training you have doesn't help me."

"Please, just let me come with you. I'll get out at the first place with more than two people that aren't trying to eat me." Ash pleaded.

"Caine, we have to go now! Either shoot her or drag her with us, just don't make me sit near her. I don't want to be touched by something that does it with other women." Madison called out worriedly.

"Fine. You're sitting in the front with Madison, I'll get in the back. Maybe make myself a cot." Caine said with finality.

"Richard, time to go!" Madison called out while reloading, even more worried now.

"Go! Go! Go!" Caine signalled, sending madison through the door, followed by Ash and then him. Madison went through the door, guns blazing into the reforming crowd of vampires, hoping to break them up again. She nodded to the rear door of the car, still shooting, just as Caine passed her and opened both driver side doors and slid into the back. Ash followed in his footsteps and went through the driver's door and quickly clambered into the passenger seat, with madison right behind her.

As soon as Madison closed the door, Caine yelled out "VICE, get us the hell out of here! Try scrambling their turrets as well."

"One moment, Sergeant." VICE replied, being quickly followed up by the sound of the gate's rollers grinding along the tracks, and the squealing of the car's tires slipping on the cracked road. The car reached the gate just as it opened enough for them to get through and just as the guns started to spin around on them. Though, they didn't fire on the car, only every other moving thing in the city, clearing it of many of the vampires and many other new world creatures, like the few deathclaws that caine could've sworn he heard screeching in pain.

"Where are we headed?" asked VICE.

"What do you think, Madison?" Caine inquired.

She was about to speak when Ash said "Lets go to New York!"

Madison replied angrily "No one asked you, carpet-munch. I want to go back to the capital, and _finally_ get to Canterbury."

Caine asked, disgustedly "Madison, what the hell's your problem? I don't like the woman, but that's because she was ready to have us eaten. You don't like her just because she likes women, without even considering what she's like as a person."

"I just don't like gays, that's all." Madison replied, matter-of-factly.

"Then why aren't you ripping on the black guy, he was coming on to me. You should keep an open mind, some of my better friends from the other universe were homosexual." Caine answered, still disgusted in her.

"But... what's the point? It's not like the sex is getting you anything." Madison replied.

"It's about more than just procreation. If you break everything down to just survival, then you're no better than some kind of animal. Humans, and our derivatives, can think on a higher level, so we can do stuff that isn't just about survival. Compassion, love and comfort are things that animals don't need to worry about, but that we do. Just think about it." Caine rebutted, calmly.

"I... wow. I never would have expected that from you, after what happened after we met." Madison said, humbly.

"I'm a complex person, an Artist, if you will. Philosophy and Combat are both art forms, and I'm pretty good at both."Caine replied, proudly.

"Yeah, and you have the ego to match." mumbled Madison, quietly enough that, she hoped anyway, Caine wouldn't hear her.

VICE spoke up, scaring Ash by saying "So, we're headed to Canterbury? I can get us close, but not all the way there."

Ash, confused and afraid of the new voice, asked "What was that? Who was talking like that? I know it was neither of you."

VICE, disappointed in how long it took her to notice him, said "I am Voice Interface Controller, English; or VICE for short. I'm a piece of software that runs this car and a few other pieces of gear. I'm an Artificial Intelligence, and I'm not dangerous to those people that I like. I haven't decided about you yet."

Caine said "Why not? Madison did fill up the tank, right?"

VICE responded "Yes she did, but one of the many rounds that was fired cut one of the fuel lines. I activated the emergency sealant, so we wouldn't lose all of our fuel, but we did lose a bit before the sealer hardened. On another note, We'll need to replace the emergency sealant, and that fuel line after you've removed the sealant, ASAP."

Caine replied "Great, another two hours of scraping amber off of the undercarriage. You both are helping me once we get to a shop."

"Technically, the sealant isn't amber. It is just an amber colored, rubber based..." VICE responded, before being cut off by Caine saying "Yes, I know what it is, VICE."

"Affirmative. I'll get us as close to the town as I can, but we'll probably be a few miles out." VICE said.

"How does he know all of this?" Ash asked Madison, trying to start a conversation.

"He comes from out west, some Republic that exists, or doesn't exist, out there. I can't get a straight answer out of him." Madison said, frustrated with having to talk to her.

"Yes, I come from the New California Republic. It's a nation, based out of the heart of california, that doesn't truly exist in this universe. Speaking of that, here's a good old fashioned NCR classic that sums it up perfectly!" Caine cried happily

Before he could start Madison said "Don't you even think about starting singing! You'll make my ears bleed."  
>"What, don't like the tune, Virginia girl? Well, we may be south of the Mason-Dixon, but this is Maryland, so your confederacy can kiss my ass." he declared before taking a breath and starting to sing.<p>

"_Bring the good old bugle boys, we'll sing another song_

_Sing it with a spirit that restores the Old World gone_

_Sing it as we used to sing it fifteen-thousand strong_

_While we were marching through Maxson_

_Hurrah! Hurrah! We paid the butcher's bill_

_Hurrah! Hurrah! We proved we had the will_

_And so we sang the chorus from the border to Lost Hills_

_While we were marching through Maxson_

_How the tribals shouted when they heard the joyful sound_

_How the brahmin mooed those that our commissary found_

_How the xander-root it even started from the ground!_

_While we were marching through Maxson_

_Hurrah! Hurrah! We paid the butcher's bill_

_Hurrah! Hurrah! We proved we had the will_

_And so we sang the chorus from the border to Lost Hills_

_While we were marching through Maxson_"

"Stop! Before you make my ears bleed: Stop singing! I'm visiting a doctor next time we see one to make sure you didn't damage my hearing." Madison replied with a pained groan.

"Yeah, ouch. I thought a deathclaw's screech hurt, but that pales in comparison to your 'singing'. That still doesn't really answer my question though." Ash said, siding with Madison.

"Nice, I wish I'd thought of that! VICE, how long 'til we get to the capital?" Madison added.

VICE replied "Just over three hours. Get comfortable, It's going to be a long ride."

"Hey, if we're doing introductions anyway, what's your name Ash?" Madison asked.

"I hate that nickname. I'm Ashley Smith, call me Ashley, call me Smith, what ever, just please don't call me 'ash', alright?" She replied, mocking the nickname.

"Fine, Smith. I come from, like I said, the New California Republic. It's a representative democracy, divided into various states, usually based around a single city, like Arroyo, Richmond, or Vault City. Like the old _états-unis_, we elect representatives for the government, for the House of Representatives and the Senate, we elect our president similarly to how it was done back then as well." Caine explained

Over the next hour or so Caune explained everything he could about the New California Republic, with Madison butting in with smart remarks when she felt it appropriate, to Caine's chagrin. Ashley, pleased that she had gotten Madison to accept, or at least tolerate her, leaned back in her seat and stared out the window, eventually drifting off to sleep. Madison, on the other hand, was worried about getting there. She thought about her life, and the plans she had had for the future when she started out, and then she thought about the last few days, and realised she actually had more fun with Caine, despite the danger and the lackluster insults. She realised that she'd have to ask to stay with Caine, and for whatever reason, she loathed that more than the thought of trying to fight three behemoths at the same three hours passed with madison just thinking, as evidenced by the quickly setting sun.

"Hey, Caine... I... I have something I want to ask you." Madison said, her voice faltering.

"What's on your mind?" Caine asked, intrigued by her nervousness.

"I... I... Never mind. Forget about it." Madison replied, as nervously as before.

"No, now I'm interested. What is it that's making you so nervous?" Caine asked with a sly smirk.

"Are we there yet?" was the first phrase out of Ashley's mouth when she awoke to the tense situation.

Madison didn't respond, just wrapping her hands around the steering wheel and staring at the road before them, her knuckles slowly turning white.

After what felt like an eternity to her, Ashley chimed in with a singsong "Awkward", which Madison and Caine responded to with "Quiet!" in unison. Ashley just replied, again singsongily, with "More Awkward!".

Caine spoke again, this time with concern, saying "I'll drop it, for now. But you're going to have to tell me sooner or later." then added seriously, while pointing at Ashley, "And you. You need to shut your hole before I leave you with the nearest group of cannibals."

"Why the fuck should I? You won't actually throw me to cannibals, not when you got pissed at me for attempting to do the same." Ashley retorted defiantly.

"Jesus, don't go there." was all Madison could say before Caine cut her off.

He angrily started with "You really are stupid, aren't you? I've seen hundreds of bloody sunsets on dusty plains, nothing but boiled animal flesh running oil lamps to show anything happened at all. Then all of that, swept into time immemorial, forgotten by all but those who were there. I've seen hundreds, thousands of good men die for no reason at all. I've had good friends die in my arms for no reason. Do you think I have any qualms at all with killing someone I barely know who also plotted to have me killed? Don't mistake dislike of blind ignorance for respect. I don't like you, I just defended you because I don't like conclusions drawn from no basis."

Once he finished, Madison spun to him and said "Caine, just... just calm down. She's just stupid, and we'll be rid of her soon. We'll leave her at Canterbury and start building. Who knows, maybe she'll actually prove to be useful instead of just a button-pushing bitch."

"Yeah. I want to be done with you as soon as possible. You've got 'til Canterbury to travel with us, then you're gone. You can leave as well Madison, if you want." Caine said, with barely constrained anger.

"I... I haven't decided yet. You... this whole experience has been interesting. I... I think I want to keep traveling with you. Plus, I can't really picture myself as a waitress." Madison replied, with a sigh.

"Your choice." was Caine's response, shocking Madison.

"Really, no attempts at witty remarks, no jokes, just 'Your choice'? I'm really not sure if I should be relieved or insulted." Madison said, in utter shock.

"No, no jokes. I've known you for three days, almost four. My best friend for most of my life died in my arms, by a Brotherhood sniper's bullet. Piece of shit used fragmenting rounds, left holes like an 8 gauge with number 3 shot. People leave, people die, but I actually like having you around. At first, you were just a guide; but over the last few days, I've gotten used to having you around. You're the first person I've told that story to without knowing them well. I've been justifying my actions to you, something anyone who knows me well would know just doesn't happen. I've realised that I actually give a fuck about your opinion, and you do mean more to me than just a hired guide. You're the first person that I've really trusted since, well..." Caine admitted.

"Wow, I... I'm sorry about your friend. That means alot to me, coming from you. I promise you that I'll stay with you; at least if I do get killed young, I'll feel like I was accomplishing something, instead of old and unfulfilled. At least then, I would die happy, and on my own terms." Madison said, sadly.

Caine tried to change the mood he'd created with "Thats all anyone can ever ask, right? Either way, when we go to Canterbury, we can sponsor the caravans in return for some of the profits."

"Wanderer already did it." Madison replied.

"We'll buy control of them, then." Caine said flatly.

"Do we have enough cash?" Madison asked.

"The box is something like two thirds full. We should have enough."Caine replied, proudly.

"They're probably worth more than you expect, and from what I've heard Roe is pretty attached to them. Let's just try for one, see what he wants for it." Madison responded, not believing how much money he thought he had..

"My opinion of your intelligence continues to rise. Pretty soon, I might have to call you clever." Caine replied snidely.

"Well, every time you open yours, my opinion of your intelligence drops, so we're quickly going to reach an impasse." Madison answered happily.

"Ladies, ladies; You're both stupid compared to me, so I win. On a more serious note, though, we're about forty five minutes out of Canterbury, but we've only got enough gas for fifteen more minutes of driving.. That should put us in Germantown, Maryland." VICE said.

"Did... did I hear that right? Did you say Germantown?" Madison asked, worriedly.

"Yes I did. Why are you worried?" VICE asked.

"Germantown is an big outpost of super mutants and raiders, the entire city is infested with 'em. And they'll be pissed, since we beat them back from their favorite hunting ground." Madison replied, worriedly.

"Shit. What about Centaurs?"Caine asked calmly, his mind immediately switching to tactical thought.

"I... I don't know. I certainly hope not, but I just don't know." Madison replied, with a mixture of sadness and fear.

Caine mumbled "Shoddy intel, tactical disadvantage. You've been through worse, Caine." then asked "VICE, do you have anything?"

"Sorry Sergeant, there are too many buildings in the city, all I can pick up with the short range RADAR is the outer walls of them." VICE replied, apologetically.

"Perfect. Just fucking perfect. Smith, can you shoot?" Caine asked, a touch of anger entering his calm voice.

"I've never even held a gun in my life, so no. I can't shoot." She replied, defensively.

"Fine, then you need to stay back. I'll be putting my pack on you, since you're uninjured. VICE, I need you to stop the car before we enter the city then transfer to the helmet. I plan to go around." Caine replied, the anger in his voice subsiding.

"Affirmative." VICE replied, then shifted the car down to first gear and then to a stop in the span of a few hundred yards.

Madison, noticing the car stop, asked coyly "Why are we stopping now? Don't you want to get closer to the city, put us in _even more_ danger?"

"I have no problem being in the fray, but I'm not stupid usually. We are outnumbered and outgunned. If it were just mutants, I'd take the chance of coasting through the city, but with the raiders as well, not so much." Caine replied, pulling a rope, a shirt for him and a pair of pants for Madison out of the foot locker/seat he had been laying on.

A synthesised beep emitted from the car's radio just as Caine opened his door, signalling that VICE had transferred fully out of the car and into the helmet. He put on the shirt, donned the helmet and gave the pants to her, then moved to the back of the car, opening the lid of the trunk. Inside were a few empty jerry cans, some tools and his old backpack, still with the Varmint rifle he'd received in goodsprings in the left side holster, and the Hunting Shotgun he'd bought in Flagstaff in the right. He tied the rope through some of the loops for the shoulder straps, checked if the shotgun was fully loaded, which it was, then carried it over to the passenger side door. Both Smith and Madison had already got out of the car, so he through the pack onto Smith's back then stuffed the box of caps into it and zipped it closed, making the already mostly filled pack look positively overstuffed, then wrapped the rope around his hand a few times and gave it a good tug, almost pulling her off her feet.

Then he drew the shotgun out of the holster while speaking to Madison, " This is a 12 Gauge hunting shotgun. I've loaded it with eight rounds of buckshot, plus there's a slug already loaded. Don't shoot unless you need to, I don't have much ammunition for it."

As he tried to hand it to her, she refused it, saying "I've never held a gun in my life, I'd just be wasting the ammo."

Still holding it out to her, he replied "That's why you don't shoot until you absolutely need to. To paraphrase an old saying, 'not until you see the whites of their eyes.' Got it?"

She took it, then said "Yeah, sure. Just don't get in the way, I'd probably hit you too."

Madison, incredulous, almost screamed "What? You're giving her a gun? I had to wait for two days before you trusted me with mine!"

Caine, a good bit worried about how loud she was being, said "Quiet down. You'll attract attention to us. About the gun, I don't trust her, but we need all three of us to be ready for combat, or we'll all get dead."

Madison backed down, and while almost pouting, apologized "Sorry, I'm on edge 'cause of the foot. How aren't you on edge, with those ribs of yours being that painful?"

Caine shook his head and chuckled, saying "I have good control over my own pain, I can block it out when I need to."

"Can we get going, Caine? I don't want to be on a leash any longer than I have to." Ashley whined.

"Don't tell me what to do, you haven't earned that right. You are right, though. Let's get going." Caine replied, sharply.

Madison knew the area a good bit better than Caine's maps could show, although she didn't really know much about the area, so she took the lead, staying only slightly ahead of Ashley and Caine, moving towards the , though, she realised she had made an error in her choice, as they were approaching the raider infested Germantown railyard.

"Crap, the raiders live in that railyard. Do you want to try and sneak through, or just go farther west and give them a wide berth?" Madison asked, a bit disappointed in herself for guiding them into what could easily have been an ambush.

"We're starting to lose the light anyway, let's head west and try to find somewhere to hole up for the night." answered Caine.

"Fine by me, I guess. It's not like getting jumped in the middle of the night will be an issue." Ashley added, sarcastically.

"Whatever. If we find a hideaway good enough, it won't be a problem." Madison said dismissively, heading off towards the setting sun, away from the railyard and the city. Quickly, though, she found a somewhat intact building that they could stay in. It was mostly empty, with all the furniture in the reception area and in most of the rooms having been taken, and even the doors had been taken, leaving only a few rooms with intact enough to be secure when barricaded.

"Hey, why don't we decide on watches before we go to sleep." offered Ashley, hoping that the offer wouldn't make Caine mad.

"I agree with her. I'll take the first watch." added Madison.

"Fine by me. I'll take the second half." answered Caine.

"Sweet, I get to sleep!" exclaimed Ashley, ecstatically.

"That's only because I don't trust you to not try and kill me during the night." Caine growled, condescendingly.

Caine and Madison dragged the few desks they could find into the doorway of the small room they chose, which seemed to be an office that had been shared between three people, based on the divider walls. After they go a few desks in the way, they piled as much small stuff as they could on top, trying to make the barricade even harder to move through. Once they finished that, Caine set up a makeshift bed that he could use until his watch began, at which point Madison could take it. He fell asleep soon after that done, and Ashley had already fallen asleep by that point.

Unluckily, though, it was a very dark night, so Madison had to gather up some books to start a fire. Once she thought she had enough to get and keep the fire going for most of the night she built and lit it, then propped herself up and got ready with the FAL. After a few hours, she began to seriously doubt that anyone had noticed her little fire, and even if they had, they didn't seem to care. Out of nowhere, the makeshift barricade exploded and she was grabbed around the waste by some invisible, yet exceptionally strong, force. It picked her up off of her feet, almost 2 feet off the ground, and crushed into her sides, pushing all the air out of her in a high-pitched scream, then flung her against the wall behind Caine, knocking her unconscious and jolting him to complete consciousness.

He had seen this happen before, back out west, but he never expected to see it here, to see anything from the Master's army this far east. He grabbed the shotgun from next to ashley and fired into the doorway, the blast loud enough to echo many times inside the room, and make his ears ring. More importantly for him, though, the slug that was in the gun punched into the thing's body, causing its stealth field to shimmer and fail in ripples, like those of a pond when a big rock is thrown into it, with a burst of viscous black blood spurting out to complete the effect. The deep blue skinned mutant roared out in pain as Caine pulled the slide back towards him, ejecting the hot metal shell with a click and the sound of metal clattering on tiles. He pushed it back forward and brought the muzzle in line with the beast's throat and squeezed the trigger, another loud bang immediately followed by the thing choking on the blood in its perforated throat.

"Sonuvabitch! That's so loud!" Ashley yelled, not realising how loud she was being.

Caine, worried she'd draw more attention, said "Shut up! You'll attract even more attention with your yelling than we already have."

Caine realised he was still basically laying down, his shoulders rolled up enough to give a good shooting pocket, but not much more. He slid up to a sitting position then to standing, all while keeping the shotgun trained on the mutant carcass's head.

From there, he slid back to check on Madison, to make sure that she was alright. She was unconscious, but didn't seem to have any broken bones. He knew she would have bruises, and probably a concussion, but he wasn't worried about her dying right then. he stepped forward again, put his boot on the blue skinned mutant's windpipe, and pressed down, feeling the thing's throat compress and snap, with a flurry of audible and strangely satisfying cracking sounds.

"What the fuck is that thing?" asked Ashley, pointing Caine's desert eagle at its dead face.

Caine spun on her, almost smashing into her lower row of teeth with the muzzle of the gun, and demanded "Why do you have my gun? Drop it, now."

She took her finger off of the trigger and flipped it around so the grip faced him, then said "You took my gun, so I grabbed yours to defend myself in case it killed you after you shot it the first time."

Caine released the slide and grabbed the handgun, holstered it, then replied "Fine, just don't do it again. And don't forget, all three of them are mine. You had a nice grip on the handgun, though. A little low, but good enough that it looks like you've used pistols a bit, like you've had training in them. I seriously hope you weren't lying about never having used a gun."

"I'm just a natural, I guess. Just so you know, I didn't mean I owned the shotgun, just that that was what I was assigned." Ashley replied, happily.

The two of them stayed up talking about themselves for the rest of the night, trying to pass the time and hopefully get their hearing to heal faster. Caine learned that Ashley's family had actually lived in an old fallout shelter in Morgantown, but most of the other inhabitants had either already left or, in the case of her parents and a few other people, died when one of the generators exploded, leaving only her and three others in the shelter. They had decided to leave the shelter, but the other two were older, in their 50's or 60's even, so they didn't last more than a few years in the decayed ruin which used to be Morgantown,West Virginia. She had lived on her own for almost three years, hunting smaller game in the city with spears and traps, and just carving out an existence before the vampires had arrived. He explained to her what the "Prime" NCR was, and the differences between it and the NCR of the current universe. After a while, the sun began to peek over the horizon once more, so he let the fire die down.

Madison, he realised, looked very peaceful, even though she had been slammed into a wall, and that she was actually pretty cute, or would be if she weren't covered in dirt and grime, and if her hair was less disheveled. Her hair complemented her face, even in this state, accentuating her currently closed eyes, which Caine realised he didn't know the colour of; Her armour had been fitted for her back in Tenpenny, hugging her curves yet still looking both fierce and functional, and had been carefully polished to a dark brown hue, almost black, with a faint shine coming off of it when the light hit it. Even the metal studs in the leg pads had a dull sheen, and were completely devoid of rust and still somehow form-fitting.

"What... what happened? And why are you staring at me?" Madison groaned, groggily.

"The Nightkin threw you into the wall and knocked you unconscious. That woke me up, and I did, well... that to it." Caine said, pointing to the blue, perforated mutant corpse.

She looked over to it, then pushed herself up the wall in obvious fear, and asked "What the hell is that thing?"

Caine put his hand on her shoulder, bringing her focus back to him, then replied "It's called a Nightkin, they were stealth troops for the Master's army. I didn't think the Master had come out this far, but they apparently did in this universe."  
>Calming down, she asked "Then why's it blue?"<p>

"I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with the Stealth Boys they use. Something about the FEV and the Stealth Boy made it evolve into the darker color, probably because they usually only did scouting at night." Caine replied.

With a weak chuckle, Madison pulled herself stiffly to her feet and replied "Good thing I don't use them, then. We should probably get going, shouldn't we?"

"You sure that you don't want to rest up a bit? We can wait." Caine offered, worriedly.

"Sounds like somebody's worrying about me when they don't need to." Madison replied, coyly.

"No, I just don't want to have to carry your unconscious ass back to Canterbury 'cause you fainted." Caine responded, defensively.

"The last thing I really need is you babying me. Pampering I can abide, but _not_ babying. Come on, let's get going." She said, happily.

* * *

><p><em>Like I said in the last chapter, Morgantown was, and still is, a clean slate in terms of the Fallout universe, so it's a great place for the story to take place. The story did need more monsters and combat in my humble opinion, so the Vampires were an obvious choice for me, being super humanly strong and tough, but still having the weakness of an allergy to sunlight.<em>

_Ashley was written in as a personal request from a friend, so this chapter will pretty much be her last appearance. She may make a few cameo appearances, but unless she requests to be in another chapter, or the readership loves her as a character, she will not have a large role in the story and will be leaving the care of Caine and Madison sometime next chapter._

_In Fallout 3, the Germantown, Maryland area had been taken over by Super Mutants and Raiders, the Mutants had taken over the Police HQ and the surrounding areas, quickly asserting strategic dominance. They held the Police HQ, the city's biggest cemetery, and a few buildings around the city which made travel difficult. The Raiders took over the Germantown railyard, meaning a lower level or injured (In the case of our group) character would have to go far north to circle around the city, or almost all the way into the river south to get safely around the rails._

_In Fallout, the PC ends up fighting the Master and his army, composed of Super Mutants, Nightkin, Centaurs, and Floaters. The Nightkin are superior to their fellow super mutants in terms of both intellect and skill, as the FEV-II dipping has not damaged their intelligence. While in the Master's Army, they had access to superior weapons, armor, and other gear, including the use of Stealth Boys. _As Caine had theorized_, prolonged use of the devices led to a permanent alteration of the pigment in their skin. Instead of the usual dull green, their skin is a pale blue._

_In Fallout and Fallout 2, Centaurs had two heads, one of a human and one of a dog, were around the size of a bear, with a large, misshapen torso, six humanoid arms that serve as legs, and a cluster of wriggling fleshy tentacles coming out from their underside, scrabbling at the ground around them. In Fallout 3 and New Vegas, only the human-like head remains, and the feelers on the back are replaced by three long, tentacle-like tongues. Unlike its two-headed "cousins", this kind of centaur uses a ranged attack: a high-arcing, slow-moving saliva projectile that can carry lethal doses of radiation. Oddly enough, it is capable of igniting lingering gas vapors as well. In close quarters it utilizes a long, three-pronged tongue to whip and slash at any intruders. _These changes also coincided with Bethesda's purchase of Interplay Studios, explaining the change in real life, but no explanation is given in any of the games as to why the change occurred. The currently accepted reason, although not explicitly given in game, is that something in the NCR's Core Region and surrounding areas caused the duality, and that the single headed version is the norm.__

_The Floaters disappeared from the series after Fallout 2, but were depicted in that game and in the original as grotesque floating worms or parasites. In the games, it is hinted that they were created when some flatworms became infected with the FEV-II. They weren't very dangerous on their own, doing very little damage, but they were able to move insanely quickly and usually traveled in groups which included centaurs, making them very dangerous to run into. Curiously, they were to be included in Fallout:New Vegas, but were cut from the game before it was completed._

_* Techno Babble *_

_Although there aren't any visual assets for it, instead using the Centaur's when viewed in the "Garden of Eden Creation Kit" (Bethesda's editor for both Fallout 3 and New Vegas), profiles for floaters, budding floaters (listed as "floater budding") and evolved floaters (listed as "floater evolved") do appear in the data files for Fallout: New Vegas, although they can not appear in game._

_*End of Techno Babble *_


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